Why must they evaluate people's personalities in the first place? Why not just judge based on academics only?
I think a portion of it is that if you judge based solely on academics then you will only get a certain type of person who is focused on scores in academics. You could easily fill your class with the top X% of scorers but that won't necessarily make an interesting group of graduates in the real world. It especially won't make an interesting group of people to interact with. I don't think I'd go to that school even if I had been admitted.
I think part of it is that they're hoping to find people who will end up being important people in the world. Not necessarily just those who perform well academically.
I can understand how #2 is important, but #3 is ripe for personal bias.
A high bar, with people passing it entering lottery quotas is a far fairer way of having both diversity, and removing personal bias from the equation.
Academic performance is mostly a disqualifier to figure out if someone would be successful enough. Harvard, doesn't really care about the GPA of its existing students which is why they also don't care about grade inflation. They're looking for signals that you'll succeed outside of academia. If you want to go to Harvard, stop looking at the application as a checklist. The best applicants are differentiated beyond the classroom.
Really?
You mean signals like parental wealth?
This practice has certainly been abused in the past and you can argue it is still being abused, but I don't think that means that judging a kid based on anything beyond academics is a bad move for colleges.
One criterion which would actually achieve what they want (and in fact greatly improve the diversity of any university) is to take into account the income/wealth background of applicants. It would not only allow more people of color, it would also open up the application process to poor white folk too who are also in a disadvantaged position in society. If there is anything that Harvard and Ivy's lack, it is the perspective of working people.
> "To prevent a dangerous increase in the proportion of Jews, I know at present only one way, which is at the same time straightforward and effective,” wrote A. Lawrence Lowell, Harvard’s president in the 1920s, “and that is a selection by a personal estimate of character on the part of the Admission authorities"
If an educational institution wishes to apply capricious standards, let them pay taxes.
Race is a protected class. Converting to a taxable entity would not protect Harvard Admissions from being racist.