USA TODAY: Let's return sanity to college admissions. Coronavirus pandemic gives us an opportunity.
date：2020-05-19 16:50author：小编source：USA TODAYviews：
The pandemic is grievous, but its effects on college admissions could benefit high school students far into the future.
For all the ways that the pandemic has upended educational institutions, this crisis may in its own twisted way end up fixing something many know is broken: the college admissions process.
We’re already seeing the beginning of a transformation in how colleges evaluate an applicant’s most important stage — the junior year of high school. Normally, because admissions officers make many of their decisions when senior year is only half over, they place special relevance on the junior year when assessing student performance. Plus, in their junior year, students first take the SAT or ACT and start making college visits during spring break or in the summer after.
But now, with a sizable portion of high school students' academic year being conducted remotely, teachers have to grade (mostly by pass/fail) in a virtual learning environment without precedent. Advanced Placement tests have been moved online and shortened to 45 minutes, and virtual open houses are replacing the campus tour.
Other parts of a college’s usual evaluation of junior year will be missing from applications, too, including spring sports and extracurricular activities, volunteer work and part-time jobs. While high school juniors might see this semester as one big asterisk on their record, the cancellation of so much this spring will force admissions offices to give the junior year back to students rather than require them to run a race to college.
The longer the pandemic lingers, the more that colleges — particularly the most selective ones — will have to change their admissions process as this year’s juniors become next year’s applicants.
Having spent part of the past year embedded in three admissions offices to research a book on the selection process, I believe these changes may actually be a good thing. The pandemic is grievous, but its effects on college admissions — including addressing the disparities in wealth — could benefit high school students far into the future.
It’s time, for example, that we return to emphasizing in admissions what really predicts success in college: a student’s high school grades and curriculum. Research shows that the courses students take and how they do in them — more than a score on a standardized test — are the two leading indicators of how students will perform in college.
For all the ways that the pandemic has upended educational institutions, this crisis may in its own twisted way end up fixing something many know is broken: the college admissions process.
We’re already seeing the beginning of a transformation in how colleges evaluate an applicant’s most important stage — the junior year of high school. Normally, because admissions officers make many of their decisions when senior year is only half over, they place special relevance on the junior year when assessing student performance. Plus, in their junior year, students first take the SAT or ACT and start making college visits during spring break or in the summer after.
But now, with a sizable portion of high school students' academic year being conducted remotely, teachers have to grade (mostly by pass/fail) in a virtual learning environment without precedent. Advanced Placement tests have been moved online and shortened to 45 minutes, and virtual open houses are replacing the campus tour.
Other parts of a college’s usual evaluation of junior year will be missing from applications, too, including spring sports and extracurricular activities, volunteer work and part-time jobs. While high school juniors might see this semester as one big asterisk on their record, the cancellation of so much this spring will force admissions offices to give the junior year back to students rather than require them to run a race to college.
The longer the pandemic lingers, the more that colleges — particularly the most selective ones — will have to change their admissions process as this year’s juniors become next year’s applicants.
Having spent part of the past year embedded in three admissions offices to research a book on the selection process, I believe these changes may actually be a good thing. The pandemic is grievous, but its effects on college admissions — including addressing the disparities in wealth — could benefit high school students far into the future.
It’s time, for example, that we return to emphasizing in admissions what really predicts success in college: a student’s high school grades and curriculum. Research shows that the courses students take and how they do in them — more than a score on a standardized test — are the two leading indicators of how students will perform in college.
Colleges know students' transcripts are the most valuable asset they receive in the reams of data that arrive with an application. And, next year, as they admit students from the Class of 2021, colleges may have no option but to acknowledge that fact.
Sure, colleges will be missing one semester’s worth of grades, but they’ll still know which courses juniors took this spring and have grades from the rest of high school. What they likely won’t have are test scores for every applicant. The College Board has already canceled three testing dates for the SAT, which displaced nearly a million juniors who planned to take the exam for the first time.
With a whole semester of extracurricular activities missing, students’ tireless efforts to burnish their applications with a catalog of activities will be curtailed. And these lists may finally be seen for what they are: largely irrelevant to teenagers’ academic potential and their ability to thrive in college.
Reduce emphasis on activities
College applications ask students to submit multiple essays, assorted recommendations from counselors and teachers, and offers spaces for 10 activities — lines that students looking for an edge feel compelled to fill in. It’s so much information, in fact, that I watched admissions officers — by necessity — give only a passing glance at some of these pages as they waded through the application piles.
Contrary to the impression many admissions offices give, only about a quarter of schools say the essay is of “considerable importance” in their admissions decisions, according to an annual survey by the National Association for College Admission Counseling, and even fewer rank counselor or teacher recommendations and extracurricular activities as essential factors.
Colleges know students' transcripts are the most valuable asset they receive in the reams of data that arrive with an application.
Assuming high schools are back in session this fall, the Class of 2021 will need September and October to catch up academically and restart their college search, not track down teachers to write recommendations, draft a dozen versions of an essay, and find yet another activity to fill in that final blank spot on the application. Colleges should respond by paring back the application to what really matters: one essay instead of three and spaces to list five activities instead of 10.
Contrary to the impression many admissions offices give, only about a quarter of schools say the essay is of “considerable importance” in their admissions decisions, according to an annual survey by the National Association for College Admission Counseling, and even fewer rank counselor or teacher recommendations and extracurricular activities as essential factors.
Colleges know students' transcripts are the most valuable asset they receive in the reams of data that arrive with an application.
Assuming high schools are back in session this fall, the Class of 2021 will need September and October to catch up academically and restart their college search, not track down teachers to write recommendations, draft a dozen versions of an essay, and find yet another activity to fill in that final blank spot on the application. Colleges should respond by paring back the application to what really matters: one essay instead of three and spaces to list five activities instead of 10.
Embrace virtual campus visits
The virtual reality into which this pandemic has thrust us all might have another salutary admissions effect. It has become common for students to visit four campuses, on average, as they choose where to apply. Research shows that nothing influences a student’s decision about where to apply and enroll as much as the visit. But campus visits — like standardized tests — favor those with the money to make the trips (and pay for test prep) and narrows students’ lists to schools their families can afford to visit.
Now, though, students are turning like never before to digital visits and virtual tours. Suddenly, colleges have to make digital visits much more compelling. If that becomes the norm, it will transform opportunities for students from every background to explore college options anywhere, and encourage families obsessed with prestige to look beyond a small selection of schools because they’ll see more campuses in passing on their desktop computer rather than from scheduled in-person visits.
Finally, while the pandemic has our attention, maybe it will lead colleges to heed what neuroscience tells us about the teenage brain: that it’s still maturing throughout high school. Every month in high school is mentally like a year to adults.
That alone is a good reason why colleges should use this fall to eliminate their early decision programs. The upheaval that the pandemic has caused in colleges’ ability to assess the junior-year qualifications they would usually give so much attention to may necessitate it. Let’s hope. Early decision is built around a counterproductive and invented urgency, and it judges young people too soon.
Early decision has turned into an ever expanding game to be won, requiring students to apply at the start of their senior year to get a binding decision in December, thus pressuring more and more schools to participate to get a share of the applicant pool and leading ever more students to apply early.
The pandemic presents colleges with a ready opportunity to turn the adjustments it will require into permanent and positive change. These changes could forever improve the clarity about what matters in high school performance, ease the pressure-cooker atmosphere of college admissions, and save the junior year for what it’s meant to be: a time to grow and learn, not be focused solely on jumping through hoops to get into college.
Ultimately, the pandemic might herald something that years of reform efforts have failed to achieve: sanity in a selection system that many acknowledge long ago stopped making sense.
Source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2020/05/11/coronavirus-gives-colleges-chance-bring-sanity-admissions-column/3095627001/
Now, though, students are turning like never before to digital visits and virtual tours. Suddenly, colleges have to make digital visits much more compelling. If that becomes the norm, it will transform opportunities for students from every background to explore college options anywhere, and encourage families obsessed with prestige to look beyond a small selection of schools because they’ll see more campuses in passing on their desktop computer rather than from scheduled in-person visits.
Finally, while the pandemic has our attention, maybe it will lead colleges to heed what neuroscience tells us about the teenage brain: that it’s still maturing throughout high school. Every month in high school is mentally like a year to adults.
That alone is a good reason why colleges should use this fall to eliminate their early decision programs. The upheaval that the pandemic has caused in colleges’ ability to assess the junior-year qualifications they would usually give so much attention to may necessitate it. Let’s hope. Early decision is built around a counterproductive and invented urgency, and it judges young people too soon.
Early decision has turned into an ever expanding game to be won, requiring students to apply at the start of their senior year to get a binding decision in December, thus pressuring more and more schools to participate to get a share of the applicant pool and leading ever more students to apply early.
The pandemic presents colleges with a ready opportunity to turn the adjustments it will require into permanent and positive change. These changes could forever improve the clarity about what matters in high school performance, ease the pressure-cooker atmosphere of college admissions, and save the junior year for what it’s meant to be: a time to grow and learn, not be focused solely on jumping through hoops to get into college.
Ultimately, the pandemic might herald something that years of reform efforts have failed to achieve: sanity in a selection system that many acknowledge long ago stopped making sense.
Source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2020/05/11/coronavirus-gives-colleges-chance-bring-sanity-admissions-column/3095627001/
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