Posted on 05/28/2007 7:03:46 AM PDT by jude24
National Merit is based on the PSAT, which is an earlier version of the same thing
What is amazing is that our definition of what is great has been reduced to this, pretty irrelevant, one-dimmensional indicator of whatever. Have you been through the questions they ask, in recent years. A lot the "correct" answers, as identified by ETS, are either wrong, or ambiguous.
Our daughter had a 1590 on her SAT’s. She held leadership positions at her school. She had a 3.95 GPA at a private school.
And she couldn’t get wait listed at Princeton (her advisor insisted that she apply....). She graduated in 4 years from Penn State’s Schreyer’s Honors College with 3 degrees, one with honors.
She didn’t need Princeton.
I am not familiar with SAT stats, but please be assured that 2 SD above the mean (of any normal distribution) is at the 98th %ile. The difference between the 87th %ile and the 98%ile on cognitive ability tests is rather large. Note that 1 SD above the mean is at the 84th %ile.
Cognitive ability tests have been demonstrated (in meta-analyses of tens of thousands of studies) to be the best single predictor of job and academic success, by a long shot. However, schools and employers understand that multiple variables (including personality characteristics) are better predictors than single variables.
Thank you for the compliment. It is no surprise to me that DePaul is becoming nationally known as a radical left university with the Thomas Klocek and Norman Finklestein controversies. I am glad they did not take me.
“She didn’t need Princeton.”
It sounds like Princeton needed your daughter. It also sounds like your daughter will be very succesful, regardless of where she earns her degrees. Congratulations!
After nearly 20 years with a doctorate, I have been asked about the universities I attended only a handful of times. It helps with your first job to have an elite degree, but after that, employers look at your record of success. (BTW, I have met quite a few incompetents in business with Ivy League degrees).
My friend's scores were circa 1969-70, too, so they are the 'old' tests, before being dumbed down.
I wonder sometimes what ever happened to that guy. I didn't really hang around with kids from my high school after entering college, even though it was in my hometown. I got married, then we moved away five years after high school graduation and haven't been back for any appreciable length of time since. I never even attended any of my reunions because we were always living far away, and had young kids by the time those rolled around, so I never kept in touch with any of them. Hubby had not desire to go to any of his high school reunions. He said he didn't like most of those people anyway, so why make a special trip to see them again? He has a few friends with whom he's kept in touch over the years.
We're moving back to MS later this year, so I hope to re-connect with some of those folks at some point. Maybe I'll actually attend my 40th reunion in 2011, if they don't have a 35th later this year.
When Wal-Mart sells a lawnmower for $149, every customer that walks in the door has the opportunity to buy the lawnmower for $149. Harvard and the University of Virginia price their goods quite differently. They may say their annual tuition is $25,000. If you are Vincent Vanderbilt IV, then you do indeed pay $25K/year, but that's OK, because your uncle could afford put his name on the the new alumni center. If you are Joe Impoverished, raised by a single mom who makes $15K/year, then you get a financial aid package that covers all of your tuition costs. However, if you are Mike Average, and your folks make $80K/year, they'll put together a financial aid package so your parents contribute $15K/year and they give you $10K/year in scholarship aid. $10K/year sounds like a generous scholarship package, but what they are really doing is setting the sticker price ridiculously high and then selectively discounting. For Ellen Typical, whose parents make $65K/year, they may put together a financial aid package worth $12K/year.
Car salesmen would love to have the same opportunity to pour through their customers' financial records before decided how much to take off the sticker price.
What makes this racket even worse is that one of College administrators' favorite justifications for double digit tuition increases is "so that we can set aside more money for scholarships and financial aid". In other words, by raising the sticker price further they have more leverage to squeeze the optimum price out of every middle-class student.
The main value of elite college is social. Did you know, for instance, that George Bush and Mitt Romney were in the same class of Harvard biz school?
Here’s a novel concept...how about simply taking the students with the best GPA’s and best SAT scores, regardless of economic status, race, or sex? In other words, how about admitting based on merit?
Amen to that! I’ll bet you felt just a wee bit of pride, now, didn’t you? :)
Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
She’s a wonderful young woman who takes after her daddy!
Please note that is implied that he wouldn't go as far in life, if he had gone (gasp) a state school.
No, they aren’t using income as a basis for addmittance, they are using income, neighborhood, family background, and essays, to get around bans on affirmative action.
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