College Application Essays: Redefining Equity
A recent New York Times article, titled “Ban or Embrace? Colleges Wrestle With A.I.-Generated Admissions Essays,” justifiably questions whether students should be allowed to use ChatGPT or other A.I. to help write their college application essays. What this question ignores, however, is that A.I. detectors have been rendered useless by the newest version of ChatGPT […]
US Grade Inflation
Additional explanation for students and parents why there is so often a disconnect between good grades/honor-roll and SAT/ACT scores: Sources: For the ACT data, it has to be pieced together from a few sources:
Correlations between College Admissions Criteria and Wealth, according to ChatGPT
Is there a correlation between SAT scores and wealth? Answer: Yes. ChatGPT: There is a correlation between SAT scores and wealth, but the relationship is complex and can be influenced by various factors. First, students from wealthier families may have access to resources and opportunities that can help them prepare for the SAT, such as […]
Bitter Irony in Test-Blind Admissions
Those in favor of test-optional and test-blind admissions tend to wax poetic about the need to abolish testing requirements in order to improve access and equity. I have previously written about how the latter belief is misguided (see here) and false (see here). But today I want to highlight one school in particular because the […]
Test-Optional May Increase the Value of Attending an Elite High School
“History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does often rhyme.” – Mark Twain In this instance, it appears that test-optional admissions is recreating the very problem that standardized tests were intended to solve in the first place. Purpose of Standardized Exams for Admission Without all students taking the same classes with the same teachers and the […]
The Ideological Crusade Against Testing
Opponents of standardized testing have two favorite studies: “Defining Promise” and a University of Chicago study. A thorough look at each reveals that they do not overturn the facts found by the many more studies that show that test scores help colleges select students who will have better college outcomes (typically lower rates of academic […]