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Comment by throw9away6 | Hacker News Reader

Ha that’s not actually happening though because college admissions aren’t going to be based in knowledge but on ability to jump through hoops perfectly

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And what, exactly, do you expect administrators to do? They don't have any actual knowledge and if they do, they absolutely do NOT want to use it, so tests are out. There are now more administrators than teaching staff. We're not far off from having more "social" workers in schools than teachers.

First and foremost, these people want to decide what is equitable. Firstly, without taking actual ability (or "conscientiousness", how much effort kids are willing to put in), and secondly, they're human. They're corrupt.

That’s exactly what I expect. With no ability to differentiate candidates by ability all you can do is chase diversity metrics or look for people that haven’t made any mistakes yet (4.0 vs 3.9 etc)

I thought Scott Alexander's take was interesting https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/why-match-school-and-s... and the phrase "laundering privilege" stuck with me. It's like a crypto mixer but for privilege.

Yeah, that was interesting take... that the actual smart kids are there to make the rich kids look smart.

AI is going to upend everything about education.

I can't imagine colleges doing much beyond lots of AI interviews in the near future. That's if there is even a point in getting 95% of degrees anymore anyway.

The main purpose of college besides education and networking is the development of social stratification. Many employers will toss your CV without a degree even if it is not required in any capacity for the job in question.

The internet should have transformed education. For curious self-learners it has, there’s incredible resources online for those who seek them out. But it hasn’t made much of a dent in ‘the education system’

Because ability to asses knowledge is poor everywhere. programming might be a bit better at it but everyone else relies on signaling. Also many industries are essentially government adjacent so they continuation of college entrenchment continues

Something I say to anyone who will listen is that we have lived through the moment in history when the cost to receive a world-class elite education has collapsed to near zero and hardly anybody has noticed. We still talk as if an official four year university education is the goal and bemoan the cost of it rising faster than general inflation and worry about taking on debt that will burden them for the rest of their lives and worry about our kids “getting in” to the university of their choice.

It has changed education. And people who have kids nearing college age, who have noticed, will be able to help them navigate this world in a much more useful way than people who tell their kids to take on as much debt as they can to go to any university they want.

The pipeline that fuels our decision making of what to focus on in primary/secondary school as it relates only to what will help them stand out in a college application and our decision making of what a university-level education means as it relates to getting a job is fascinating.

The sort of personal mentoring, practical supervision, and social skills development that is required for intellectual maturity cannot be acquired from YouTube videos.

I learned these skills more thoroughly in a week of fast food training than in sixteen years of public and private schooling. If these are important context for education, you'd think we would still teach decorum.

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