Jacob Vigdor: College Admissions Quandries

Sea Change Radio

Whether it be standardized testing, grades, extracurricular activities or personal essays, the question of how to level the playing field in education is quite a challenge. This week on Sea Change Radio, we take a deep dive into higher education admissions and inequities in this country with Jacob Vigdor, a Professor of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Washington. We discuss the flawed measures we use to evaluate teenage pupils and ask what the goals should actually be for college admissions officers? Are we looking for students to get good grades and make a lot of money, or become leaders in their communities and help spark thoughtful debate among their peers? We examine the shortcomings of standardized testing and grades, explore admissions systems at most “elite" schools, and try to come up with some solutions to the problem. Narrator | 00:02 - This is Sea Change Radio covering the shift to sustainability. I'm Alex Wise. Jacob Vigdor (JV) | 00:23 - If you ask the question, could an elite college find the students who have the academic foundation to be successful at their institution without standardized test scores? The answer is an unambiguous resounding yes. Narrator | 00:42 - Whether it be standardized testing grades, extracurricular activities, or personal essays, the question of how to level the playing field in education is quite a challenge. This week on Sea Change Radio, we take a deep dive into higher education, admissions and inequities in this country with Jacob Vigdor, a professor of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Washington. We discussed the flawed measures we use to evaluate teenage pupils and ask what the goals should actually be for college admissions officers. Are we looking for students to get good grades and make a lot of money, or become leaders in their communities and help spark thoughtful debate among their peers? We examine the shortcomings of standardized testing and grades, explore admission systems at most, quote unquote elite schools, and try to come up with some solutions to the problem. Alex Wise (AW) | 01:55 - I am joined now on Sea Change Radio by Jacob Vigdor. He is a professor of public policy and governance at the University of Washington. Jake, welcome to Sea Change Radio. Jacob Vigdor (JV) | 02:05 - Thanks for having me. Alex. Great to be here. Alex Wise (AW) | 02:08 - It's a pleasure to talk to you. I read a Twitter thread of yours that addressed an article by New York Times columnist David Leonhardt, saying that colleges have been missing standardized testing, and that there's strong evidence that it's actually a, a very good predictor of grades and performance in college, and that colleges don't know what to do now that universities have decided not to make it a requirement in the application process or at least many universities. I, I don't know if that's an accurate summary, but why don't you expand on Leonhardt's piece and then explain where he kind of cherry picked, if you will, the statistics to fit his narrative. Jacob Vigdor (JV) | 02:54 - Sure. Yeah. So the way I, I'd summarize the argument is, you know, the SAT is a predictor of how a student is going to do in college. And really the, the biggest concern is that there are certain students out there who maybe they're going to a rural high school, maybe they don't have access to the same kinds of resources. So, you know, they might be going to a high school that doesn't offer a whole lot of AP courses. They might be going to a high school where the counselors don't know how to write good recommendation letters for elite colleges. And so these are students that are at risk of falling off the radar screen of the admissions officers at Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Brown, wherever. But the SAT score is something that could, that could flag them as a student with real potential. So the idea being that maybe you're looking at an application,