Free Republic

Harvard has finally changed course and reinstated standardized testing for admissions after several other Ivy League schools led the way.Students applying to enter Harvard in fall 2025 and beyond will be required to submit SAT or ACT scores, though the university said a few other test scores will be accepted in “exceptional cases,” including Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate tests. The university had previously said it was going to keep its test-optional policy through the entering class of fall 2026...In explaining its decision to accelerate the return to testing, Harvard cited a study by Opportunity Insights, which found that test...

Five prominent U.S. universities have agreed to pay a total $104.5 million to settle a lawsuit accusing them of price fixing. Brown University agreed to pay $19.5 million, Columbia and Duke are each paying $24 million, and Yale and Emory are each paying $18.5 million, according to United Press International. The lawsuit was brought forward by eight former students against 17 universities, alleging they colluded as "a price-fixing cartel" to "fix" price competition when it came to financial aid. It essentially states the schools collectively shared confidential data and information about admissions and financial aid, from which they adopted a...

“You break it, you bought it.” That’s a sign displayed in some stores that feature fragile merchandise. “You reap what you sow,” meanwhile, is an old proverb that means “you eventually have to face up to the consequences of your actions.” You take your blue-collar beer brand and do an advertising tie-in with a flamboyant transgender star, and your sales fall through the floor. That’s not a saying -- that’s what happened to Bud Light.Harvard University is finding out the hard way that actions (and inactions) have consequences as early admissions applications plummeted 17 percent this autumn in the wake...

Florida’s public university system on Friday voted to approve the Classic Learning Test (CLT), a college entrance exam, making it the first state to accept an alternative to the SAT. Backed by Christian schools and conservative political groups, the CLT was first introduced in December 2015 and is currently accepted by over 250 American colleges and universities, according to its website. The $59 online test consists of a three-section, two-hour exam that assesses verbal reasoning, grammar and writing as well as quantitative reasoning. Students will also have the ability to view their scores the same day they complete the test....

There are many possible lessons that can be drawn from this new study on elite college admissions but however you slice the data, it reveals that it’s very good to be rich if you want to get into a top school. Take a look at this graph. The x-axis is parent’s income. The y-axis is half-as-likely to be admitted up to twice-as-likely to be admitted.There are all sorts of caveats here but the basic idea is that people who all scored the same on the SAT have a much higher chance of getting in if they are in the top...

The Supreme Court’s decision banning college-admission based on race was a good first step, but the challenge now is to see that schools abide by it. Indeed, no sooner did the court rule than President Joe Biden vowed not to let the decision “be the last word.” *** Back in 1998, I knew my odds of getting into medical school, as an Indian-American, would be better if I were black. So, being dark-skinned, I pretended I was black — and got accepted, despite a mediocre 3.1 GPA. Once there, though, I found the going rough and dropped out. *** More...

Columbia Law journals are delaying admissions decisions in the wake of the Court's landmark ruling. The move highlights how the verdict could have implications beyond undergraduate admissions. Law journals at Columbia University Law School are delaying their masthead decisions in the wake of the Supreme Court's ruling last week outlawing race-based college admissions, a sign that the ban on affirmative action is already having an effect beyond undergraduate programs. The law school's office of student services, which coordinates applications to all journals including the flagship Columbia Law Review, said Sunday that journal acceptances had been postponed until the school could...

The Supreme Court ruled against affirmative action in a major case on Thursday Asian Americans praising the U.S. Supreme Court for declaring affirmative action to be unconstitutional "carried the water" for White supremacy, The Atlantic writer Jemele Hill claimed. In a 6-3 decision on Thursday, the Supreme Court ruled that using race as a factor in college admissions violated the 14th Amendment's equal protection clause. After the ruling, many Asian Americans, including Asian Wave Alliance President Yiatin Chu, celebrated the decision as a step towards equal treatment at major universities. "I told my daughter that today is a big day....

Candidates backed by an organization focused on promoting merit-based admissions notched several victories in New York City’s recent school board elections, according to the New York Post. Of 147 candidates endorsed by Parent Leaders for Accelerated Curriculum and Education (PLACE NYC), a group focused on improving academic rigor within K-12 schools, 115 won a seat on their local school district board for the 2023-2025 term, according to the New York Post. The endorsed candidates now make up 40% of elected officials on Citywide & Community Education Councils, which is New York City’s version of school boards. “The results of this...

There has been an ongoing battle in New York City over whether or not to use standardized testing and competitive admissions to identity top students. Those who are in favor of competitive admissions and standardized testing say it grants slots at the best schools to the most prepared and hardest working students. At present, those students tend to be disproportionately Asian. Those who oppose the testing for admissions, including the previous mayor Bill de Blasio, want to see a greater percentage of black and Hispanic students get access to top schools. Their goal is to “desegregate the system” and they’ve...

Color me a bit surprised at this news, considering the context of our times. Twenty years ago, this result would have been utterly predictable, but critical race theory and ethnic determinism had not yet ingrained themselves into the educational, legal, and corporate establishments at that time.Maybe those radical concepts haven’t actually ingrained themselves as much as people think. At least that’s what the result of today’s Marquette Law poll on racial preferences suggests:The Marquette survey finds that the public is skeptical of the use of race in college admissions, with 41% in favor of a decision that would find a...

‘We did not fight a civil war about oboe players,’ Chief Justice John Roberts said, shooting down Harvard’s attorney during oral arguments on Monday.WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Monday morning, I swept through the marbled halls of the Supreme Court of the United States, off First Street NE here in the nation’s capital, to enter the highest room of jurisprudence in the land. The sound of my footsteps muffled atop thick carpeting, the blinds on the massive windows mostly drawn and the room packed with rows upon rows of chairs, slowly filling.A daughter of India who grew up in Morgantown, West...

Robert Flaxman was found hanged in his Malibu home during a welfare check. The 66-year-old pleaded guilty to fraud and conspiracy over admissions scandal. He had his daughter's ACT exam corrected by a proctor to inflate her score.. .... LA real estate developer Robert Flaxman, who was charged in the college admissions scandal alongside Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin, has killed himself. The 66-year-old from Los Angeles was found hanged in his Malibu home last week after his friends requested a welfare check. ... Flaxman was among 53 people charged with paying Rick Singer, the mastermind of the scheme, to...

A father was acquitted Thursday of charges that he paid off a Georgetown University tennis coach to get his daughter into the school in the final trial linked to the explosive college admissions bribery scandal. Amin Khoury's case is the 57th stemming from the Operation Varsity Blues investigation — which rocked the world of higher education and collegiate sports — to come to a conclusion, and the only one to end in an acquittal at trial. Khoury was not found guilty by jurors on all counts stemming from accusations that he bribed then-Georgetown tennis coach Gordon Ernst with cash in...

After careful consideration, we have decided to reinstate our SAT/ACT requirement for future admissions cycles. Our research shows standardized tests help us better assess the academic preparedness of all applicants.

Alexandria, Virginia; February 25, 2022: Today, a federal judge ruled that Fairfax County school officials violated the law by changing admissions requirements at the nation’s top public school to deliberately reduce the number of Asian-American students enrolled. Last March, a coalition of parents, students, alumni, and community members filed a lawsuit challenging admissions changes at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJ). “This is a monumental win for parents and students here in Fairfax County, but also for equal treatment in education across the country,” said PLF attorney Erin Wilcox. “We hope this ruling sends the message that...

The Department of Justice has granted U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar an ethics waiver, permitting the former Harvard professor to support race-based admissions in a Supreme Court case involving Harvard University. Prelogar, who taught at Harvard Law School in the fall of 2020, was nominated for Solicitor General in August 2021 and confirmed by the Senate that October. Under the Biden Ethics Pledge, Prelogar was prohibited from working on a court case relating to her former employer until two years after her appointment. But the ethics waiver releases her to argue the case before the Supreme Court. Protect the People’s...

Parents have accused America's top high school of a 'purge' after slashing its intake of Asian American students by 20 percent because 'they are the wrong minority.' Anti-Critical Race Theory campaigner Asra Nomani, whose child graduated from the school this year, claims Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJ) in Virginia is making race a factor in the admissions criteria and discriminating against Asian children. She said TJ, which ranked the number one school nationwide in the US News Best High Schools report in April and as a public school has no tuition fees, has 'systematically set out...

Random selection is not generally an approach that most people opt for in the selection of doctors or even restaurants or a movie. However, it appears to be the new model for some in higher education. Former Barnard College mathematics professor Cathy O’Neil has written a column calling for “random selection” of all college graduates to guarantee racial diversity. It is ever so simple: “Never mind optional standardized tests. If you show interest, your name goes in a big hat.” She is not the only one arguing for blind or random admissions. Recently, University of California President Janet Napolitano announced...

Critical race theory (CRT) is a divisive, discriminatory ideology that judges people on the basis of their skin color. It has penetrated our society—it's in federal agencies' and federal contractors' "bias training," in school curricula and many corporations' "diversity training." Few are willing to speak out against it for fear of being labeled racists or white supremacists. Asian Americans, however, have emerged as a powerful voice against this pernicious ideology. The Chinese American Citizens Alliance of Greater New York (CACAGNY) delivered the most vigorous rejection of CRT yet, calling it "a hateful, divisive, manipulative fraud." CACAGNY is one of the...