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Comment by wholien | Hacker News Reader

Harvard's admits that have legacy status also have better SAT/Grades I believe

> And a Harvard spokesperson told me that admitted legacies tend to have higher median test scores and grades than the rest of admitted students.

https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2019/04/legacy...

Class of 2025 student profile:

> Legacy students also had a higher average SAT score than non-legacy students, at 1523 for legacy students and 1491 for non-legacy students.

https://features.thecrimson.com/2021/freshman-survey/academi...

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How many of the legacy students get unlimited time on the SAT? 20% of Harvard students do through claiming a learning disability, though the odds of 20% of the top ~.05% of students (Harvard students) all happening to have learning disabilities are insanely low, it is a higher rate than state schools. They do it because they have admissions advisors etc. that coach them to getting a diagnosis from the doctor for ADHD to get unlimited time.

I had absolutely no feeling of time pressure on the SAT. If anything, I already had too much time and the boredom of waiting to start the next section was more negative than any other effect.

I think the same is true of the overwhelming majority of people scoring 1500+.

I don’t think unlimited time is much of a cheat code if you’re faking (or getting a “light” diagnosis) and trying to break into Harvard level of SAT scoring. More time isn’t going to transpose the middle digits on a 1450.

On the math section you can for example plug and chug each option rather than use elimination heuristics etc. that are mostly required to complete in the time limit. You can also go back and triple check all your work.

Guess you didn't read the point underneath

"Just under a fifth of respondents — 19.5 percent — reported cheating in high school. The wealthiest students reported the highest rates of cheating, with 25.2 percent of students with families making more than $500,000 a year having engaged in academic dishonesty. "

The actual base rate of academic dishonesty is unknown. Maybe these students are especially honest about their dishonesty?

This could easily be skewed by self-reporting bias. Perhaps wealthier students feel they have less to potentially lose by answering the survey honestly.

That's not a huge range - a handful of missed answers - and, I believe, lower than it used to be. I distinctly remember being, at 1490, in the bottom quartile of "Harvard-bound scores". Without any proof, I imagine that Harvard et al. dropping standardized test scores from their admissions requirements has skewed who actually submits them. Legacies will only do so if it doesn't hurt their otherwise venerable pedigree; non-legacies will say, "Well, every bit helps."

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