
The Ivy League Is Broken, Standardized Tests Can Fix It - Moshe_Silnorin
https://newrepublic.com/article/119321/harvard-ivy-league-should-judge-students-standardized-tests
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bbctol
The move from pure standardized testing towards the more "holistic" approach
to admissions was deliberately designed and implemented to limit the number of
Jews at elite universities. See Jerome Karabel's excellent "The Chosen" for
more analysis
([https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Chosen.html?id=1Nf3...](https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Chosen.html?id=1Nf3FxMIEB8C\);)
there was a time when testing and grades were a large portion of admissions,
but that let too many hard-working undesirables into Ivies. Open racial quotas
would be too controversial even then, so universities started asking for
essays and extra-curriculars, judging on the basis of "character" to weed out
non-WASPs. It's an interesting study in how meritocracy can cut in unexpected
ways.

That said, no one who's been to Japan or South Korea thinks that increasing
the focus on standardized testing is that great of an idea. Taken too far,
standardized tests also favor the rich, who have the time and resources to
train and cram, and the SAT frenzy in American suburbs is already pretty high.
Lets try to be more meritocratic while keeping an eye on our teen suicide
rates.

~~~
Moshe_Silnorin
Studying for the SATs has very limited returns. Research into SAT prep
programs shows they have negligible effects. If we used something like Raven's
Matrices tests I think we could reduce this dynamic greatly.

