Harvard's Arbitrary and Political Admission Process Makes Harvard Less of an Honor: Agree?
Fef
2012/06/17 04:59:42
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Harvard ranks among the most prestigious schools in America. The university only accepted 5.9% of the applications for the class of 2016. Getting into Harvard used to have nearly as much prestige as graduating from Harvard. An anonymous student blames Harvard's changes in its admission process for the weakening of Harvard's prestige. The student suggests that Harvard and other Ivy League schools have changed their admission qualifications into elusive intangibles that obscure the qualifications of the students. Employers cannot trust the admissions boards to judge each applicant with uniform standards. The “Concerned Student” writes:
The Washington Post reports:
It’s high time the public understands and embraces the notion that college admissions decisions aren’t based on better academic or extracurricular specifications any longer, if ever in the first place.
[The admissions boards] are not looking for the finest scholars or greatest leaders, and being the best won’t get you into the “best” universities. What they’re looking for is, well, whatever they’re looking for...
The Washington Post reports:
You may have seen that Harvard just set a record for low undergraduate admission rate. Only 5.9 percent of applicants for the class of 2016 were accepted.
Read More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/class-struggle...
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- Callaway 2012/06/17 15:15:47Agree
Several of my family members are grads from various Ivy colleges Dartmouth, Yale and Harvard in a couple of cases it only took money to make some real ugly high school grades disappear. College is what you make of it, it's false to think one is vastly different/better the others as long as all are top ranked institutions same mentality is used daily in the car business. The family alumni ties to certain schools make a lot of things possible for admissions..reply - ProudProgressive 2012/06/17 15:03:20Disagree+1The fact that one student couldn't cut it at the most difficult school in the nation is hardly a commentary on the school, but rather on the student. If one Sodahead user were to say (hypothetically of course) that this site caters to conservative extremist bigots intent on spreading every piece of misinformation about their own President that they can come up with no matter how dangerous such extremism is to our nation's stability, would that make this site a completely useless rag like Drudge or Daily Caller or WorldNutDaily? I don't think so. Thank goodness that was just a hypothetical situation.reply
- TruBluTopaz 2012/06/17 14:51:33Agree+1The Ivies like to pretend they are diverse. So a kid with decent grades from one of those flyover states that the Democrats like to denigrate is more likely to get in than a kid with the same grades that lives in the northeast. Many of these schools use elements such as race, socioeconomic history, personal essays and others than achievement, merit and grades. It used to be that a degree from an Ivy was insurance at getting a good job. That's not the case anymore. There are plenty of schools that are far more academically rigorous like Rice, Stanford, CalTech, that offer more intense training than the Ivies, who have their core curriculum filled with classes designed to create a more liberal mentality.reply
- George Romney 2012/06/17 10:53:05Disagree+1They're looking for well-rounded people, and a disgruntled student doesn't speak well for their admissions process. I was explained it this way: "MIT and Stanford are looking for the genius-level IQ individuals, Harvard and Princeton are looking for the all-round successful individuals"reply
- Andy Fletcher 2012/06/17 09:57:34Disagree+1I don't pretend to know, but it is hard to take this seriously with one sparse example and the author not being able to provide what they are looking for rather than what "we have always thought" they were looking for. It's significant that he points out that we may have never had a clue as to what they base admissions on.reply
- HarleyCharley 2012/06/17 09:03:16Agreegood ole boys....reply
