What the US Could Learn About College Admissions from the USSR

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4 points·georgecmu··4 comments

Like the "Jewish questions" used to exclude Jews (and whoever else deemed unacceptable) from higher math programs? And so so much more...

https://scholarworks.umt.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=132...

Author of the article is most likely Jewish, judging by her last name.

There is a simple solution to the extracurricular arms race: allocate university seats based on performance on a nationwide standard admissions test. Seats at the most prestigious universities would go to the most deserving students, with the greatest academic potential, whose families have worked the hardest to prepare them.

> would go to the most deserving students, with the greatest academic potential, whose families have worked the hardest to prepare them

I don't disagree with you but this clearly wouldn't satisfy the complaints of most people in the general population. I went to an Ivy and can assure you that although there were probably some people who completely bought their way in - the vast majority of the wealthy kids there also had stellar aptitude and test-taking ability.

I think probably a more straight-forward (but maybe as politically intractable) solution would be to increase the funding/prestige of public institutions. These already rely much more on hard metrics. Its probably pretty hard to coerce Harvard to not let in that child of a billionaire who is "only" 90%th percentile on the SAT - but not as hard to throw UMass research money.

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