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Bribes for college admissions

Posted: Fri Mar 15, 2019 4:09 pm
by Vonz90
Am I the only one who thinks that the private schools should be auctioning off some admissions spots anyway?

Re: Bribes for college admissions

Posted: Fri Mar 15, 2019 6:34 pm
by Langenator
For these parents, the school their kid(s) go to is as much a status symbol as their car, their watch, etc.

Re: Bribes for college admissions

Posted: Fri Mar 15, 2019 7:32 pm
by Weetabix
I hadn't heard about this. One quote I found said something about "violating the sanctity of the college admissions process." Sanctity?

Private university: admit on whatever basis you want.

Public university: have published standards and stick with them.

Re: Bribes for college admissions

Posted: Fri Mar 15, 2019 7:54 pm
by randy
This simply reinforces to me that the "elite" schools are mostly about joining the right club and networking with the "right" people and not because their academics are any better than any of a number of other schools without the "prestige". If education is your primary goal, any number of the "lesser" schools will do a fine job. If partying is your primary goal, again, many of the non-prestige schools will be just as good.

Full disclosure: I went to one the state universities because it was close and automatically accepted me based on my ACT and high school grades since I was a resident of the state. So I never went through the whole application process, since it would have been a wast of time as no way was I going anywhere else due to financial and family considerations.

That being said, my experience in real world was that attendance at one of the "elite" schools was no predictor if the person was competent in their field. Some were brilliant, most were OK and some were just plain worthless. Of course I avoided fields (such as politics) where the networking of such schools is a major player, but can't say that I'm impressed with a lot the grads (of any political stripe) that came to national prominence and tout their school credentials.

One of the reasons I hope that Trump nominates someone like Amy Coney Barrett for the next USSC vacancy is bring some real diversity to the court (I.e. not a graduate of Yale or Harvard or any of the other Northeast schools)

Re: Bribes for college admissions

Posted: Fri Mar 15, 2019 8:24 pm
by Vonz90
randy wrote: Fri Mar 15, 2019 7:54 pm This simply reinforces to me that the "elite" schools are mostly about joining the right club and networking with the "right" people and not because their academics are any better than any of a number of other schools without the "prestige". If education is your primary goal, any number of the "lesser" schools will do a fine job. If partying is your primary goal, again, many of the non-prestige schools will be just as good.
Yes, and I am okay with that for private schools. Although there is some very good scholarship going on too (and plent of drivel). On any case it should be on their time and do what they like.

Re: Bribes for college admissions

Posted: Fri Mar 15, 2019 11:53 pm
by Langenator
And (as previously stated) this is much about status symbols/bragging rights for the parents as anything. "My kid goes to/graduated from USC/Stanford/Yale or whatever."

I have a cousin who has been sliding "My daughter graduated from Cal" into conversation ever since she graduated last spring.

Re: Bribes for college admissions

Posted: Sat Mar 16, 2019 2:40 am
by HTRN
randy wrote: Fri Mar 15, 2019 7:54 pm This simply reinforces to me that the "elite" schools are mostly about joining the right club and networking with the "right" people and not because their academics are any better than any of a number of other schools without the "prestige"
I could have told you that when i was 12. :roll:

Re: Bribes for college admissions

Posted: Sat Mar 16, 2019 5:30 am
by D5CAV
Vonz90 wrote: Fri Mar 15, 2019 4:09 pm Am I the only one who thinks that the private schools should be auctioning off some admissions spots anyway?
Only if they are truly private. I think there are only a handful of evangelical colleges that still "opt out" of us.gov funding programs so they are free to "discriminate" against LGBTQRSTUVWXYZ.

The list of colleges in the sting include Princeton, Stanford, USC, among others. All of these colleges get us.gov funds for "research", scholarships, student loans, affirmative action, etc., so they are not "private schools".

Besides, we are all losers here. The Chinese are looking at this with a combination of amazement and amusement. Even Communist China, where everyone is "equal" is a brutal meritocracy. There are no participation trophies, and there are no do-overs. I've met some reasonably bright (compared to US of A, anyway) middle school dropouts. Didn't pass the test, didn't get the next grade. You don't get a high school diploma for showing up, and no-one, not even the child of Premier Xi, gets into a top school without top test scores. No, you don't get affirmative action for being on the sailing team.

If you are OK with affirmative action for rich stupid kids (along with affirmative action for designated minority stupid kids), you should be learning Chinese because you will be working for Chinese soon.

Short answer: NO. They are not free to auction off admissions spots. Not with my tax dollars.

Re: Bribes for college admissions

Posted: Sat Mar 16, 2019 8:02 pm
by Vonz90
D5CAV wrote: Sat Mar 16, 2019 5:30 am
Vonz90 wrote: Fri Mar 15, 2019 4:09 pm Am I the only one who thinks that the private schools should be auctioning off some admissions spots anyway?
Only if they are truly private. I think there are only a handful of evangelical colleges that still "opt out" of us.gov funding programs so they are free to "discriminate" against LGBTQRSTUVWXYZ.

The list of colleges in the sting include Princeton, Stanford, USC, among others. All of these colleges get us.gov funds for "research", scholarships, student loans, affirmative action, etc., so they are not "private schools".

Besides, we are all losers here. The Chinese are looking at this with a combination of amazement and amusement. Even Communist China, where everyone is "equal" is a brutal meritocracy. There are no participation trophies, and there are no do-overs. I've met some reasonably bright (compared to US of A, anyway) middle school dropouts. Didn't pass the test, didn't get the next grade. You don't get a high school diploma for showing up, and no-one, not even the child of Premier Xi, gets into a top school without top test scores. No, you don't get affirmative action for being on the sailing team.

If you are OK with affirmative action for rich stupid kids (along with affirmative action for designated minority stupid kids), you should be learning Chinese because you will be working for Chinese soon.

Short answer: NO. They are not free to auction off admissions spots. Not with my tax dollars.
1. Why do you assume that markets work everywhere else they operate but not here? Schools will still have to balance vs what it does to their reputation with their potential student body make up. Well they will have direct market feedback if they screw that up.
2. The idea that college admissions to these types of schools should be granted by blind meritocracy is relatively recent (post WW1). I think we did alright then, better than now actually.
3. If you think the princelings of all the party officials in China are competing for university spots on merit, I have a bridge to sell you.

Re: Bribes for college admissions

Posted: Sun Mar 17, 2019 1:06 pm
by MarkD
I briefly worked with a young lady who was a recent Harvard graduate (BBA) she was dumber than a bag of glass hammers. I'm forever unimpressed with the Ivy League.