Comment by rdiddly | Hacker News Reader

Comment by rdiddly | Hacker News Reader

Great, they made it tuition-free, accredited, and online; now take it all the way and get rid of the idiotic hoop-jumping of the admissions process!

Edit: I know nothing about their admissions process, only that they have one. Somebody's unimaginative I see. "Admissions" should be filling out a form including contact info, bank info and so forth, and then verifying that it's all true. What could they (or you downvoters) possibly have vested in restricting admissions in any way beyond that?

To conserve scarce resources? No, resources are almost limitless, because it's online, and lecturing and presumably grading are partially or fully automated, and there's no campus with spatial restrictions.

To make sure everyone pays their way? No, everybody does pay their way, and it's a non-profit.

To maintain an air of exclusivity? No, it's the University of the People.

To make sure the on-campus community is vibrant, diverse, and full of people with interesting extra-curricular interests and leadership skills? No, because again, there is no campus and no on-campus community.

To make sure not too large a percentage of enrolled students flunk out or quit trying? No, because who cares? Only elite colleges that care about an air of exclusivity, and they care in the other direction, i.e. they want you to fail out so they appear rigorous and demanding.

So yeah. ????

This university does not have a quota. They take in all students who apply as long as they meet minimum criteria.

There are reasons as to why there should be admissions. For starters, they require a high school degree. It's obvious that you should be well familiar with all of the school material before university. All studies and communications at the university are in English only. They accept people from the whole world so they need to ensure that you have adequate English skills. In the case of CS studies, they also check if a student has some basic math skills and any previous experience in the field or recommendation.

But even here university is trying to help students who don't pass minimum math and English requirements by offering them to take introductory English and math course. If they pass it, they can go on and pursue the degree.

There are good reasons as to why it is necessary. If you don't have basic English, you can't communicate with your peers. As a part of the study, you have to read and write a lot. You also need to understand your peer work and grade it. Finally, it is easier for the rest of us to study.

Before they were more lenient in requirements and it was causing problems. They had a very high drop rate because people who enrolled had no adequate English skills for example. It also made it difficult for others to study.

Re: Your Edit (Note: Didn't downvote you.)

They can't "take it all the way." If they removed the requirements (e.g., English proficiency, high school diploma equivalent), they wouldn't be accredited.

See: Section VIII. D.

https://www.deac.org/UploadedDocuments/Handbook/Accreditatio...

As a US based student, it wasn't too difficulty. It's comparative to any other school in the US. For students outside the US and particularly outside English speaking countries, it can be more involved.

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