

Quantios is hiring: help reshape the college admission process using data - frisco
http://quantios.com/index.php?page=jobs&hn=1

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brandnewlow
_puts on ex-Ivy League admission officer robe_

Boy, it's a good thing they've got someone with admissions experience on their
team... <http://quantios.com/index.php?page=company>

Wait, wha? They don't?

How is this different from any other snake oil being sold to parents of middle
class white kids (rightly) worried that junior's at a disadvantage?

"We use numbers!"

That's great, but at the end of the day, the admission offices don't. The
decisions made at the elite schools are either obvious or highly
random/subjective.

~~~
patio11
_at the end of the day, the admission offices don't_

Oh, they are very, very highly numeric places -- they just concentrate on the
kind of numbers that have to be burned after calculation. ("We only admitted
_how_ many black students this year? STOP. Pick up the green folders pile and
find me students you think would do well if they stretched a little bit.")

I used to like Japanese universities for doing admissions via high-stakes
entrance exams. Having worked on those systems, I think I now love them.
Publishing the score distribution for the exam last year, broken down by
department, with the exact passing score needed for admission _in the bloody
application packet_ is just the cherry on top of the pie of awesome.

If Harvard leaked as much data as a Japanese university there would be a
public firestorm. (Because Harvard engages in severe, systematic racial
discrimination, but prefers to lie about the existence and extent of it.)

------
quizbiz
This is not a solution. This is part of the problem.

College admissions and my senior year was hell. I worked hard so that I could
impress the Ivies which rejected me. I don't have any regrets about my
academics but many of my applications were not worth the stress.

~~~
100k
What Quantios is trying to do is build a system that will show students good
matches for colleges that fit their profile. College admissions will always be
annoying but perhaps it will save students some of the time the time and
frustration you went through.

~~~
quizbiz
It seems that the service is to make the system _appear_ more rational, to put
a lens in front of The System, offer a consulting service, and offer an
advantage to students that are willing to play the game with parents that take
the initiative.

Why is the college admissions process ruled by for profit organizations?

Looking back, I spent too much time worrying about my scores and not enough
time making sure my essays reflected my unique achievements and skills.

~~~
frisco

      Looking back, I spent too much time worrying about my scores and not enough time making sure my essays reflected my unique achievements and skills.
    

That's still framed in the broken system in place now. Can your really tell
someone enough about you in a 2-page essay for them to make an informed
decision about your application? Test scores are just as bad, if not noisier,
signals; they're just easy to grok numbers, so like one of the other posters
mentioned, they come with implicit authority. That entire process is broken;
we're not trying to sell another snake oil "what are my chances" calculator.
There's real science behind what we're working on, and it's not a consulting
service for the wealthy.

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johnnybgoode
> _We believe that the entire world is quantifiable. Do you?_

In my experience, this belief causes many serious problems. I hope it's not
considered rude to express this here on HN, but I would suggest considering
possible ethical issues before taking a job like this.

~~~
frisco
Can you give me an example of an ethical issue arising from this view?
Quantifying something doesn't impose a system of beliefs on its own.

~~~
johnnybgoode
> Quantifying something doesn't impose a system of beliefs on its own.

I suppose that is true, but in practice, quantifications are often used by a
system that does impose certain beliefs. When this happens (and even when it
doesn't) those beliefs are seen to carry an air of objectivity simply because
there are now numbers behind them.

It is _extremely_ tempting to treat subjective views as objective truth when
there are fancy algorithms and numbers behind them. This leads to a
willingness to impose certain views on people who disagree, and that's where
the ethical issues can arise.

In the case of this particular product, there are related but separate issues
having to do with encouraging the college admissions circus. Even if the
intention is to improve it, the product would at best have the effect of
propagating the myth that the college admissions process is fundamentally
sound and can be perfected. In reality, adding more mathematical algorithms to
the process will just give it a pretense of objectivity -- again, potentially
harmful to millions of people.

------
confus3d
My first sentiment is that this had already been done - and done pretty well -
by other groups. Collegedata.com has a decent system and makes admissions
predictions (though it's a front for a student loan company). Mychances.net
appears to be very active in this field, too. It isn't clear to me exactly
what criteria they use for predictions at any given school, but they have
stated that they use gpa, sat, sat subject tests, class rank, ethnicity, state
of origin, legacy status, and sports recruitment. In other words, other people
seem to have done a pretty good job of extracting what they can out of the
quantifiable data.

I hope it's not rude for me to ask what this new group offers that those two,
plus collegeboard, unigo, and a handful of others, do not?

------
trader
Not to be negative but I saw their pitch at Duke and they actually embellished
the amount of users on thier facebook app and stole information from other
teams in a pitch competition

~~~
frisco
I'm sorry? Can you be more specific? Given what we're working on, reputation
is all we have (albeit as a function of how well our software works). We'd
never do either of those things.

