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Stevan Harrell's avatar

Kaiser, I just got around to reading this, and I find it very thought-provoking. I used to have this argument (usually friendly) with PRC students in my Chinese society classes at UW. I think they were right that basing college admissions on a test was probably fairer than the US multiple-factor system, although using just a test risked missing some really smart kids who didn't have a particular kind of mental discipline. I can think of one girl in our village school in Liangshan who was so interested in the botanical collections we were making that she learned to prepare herbarium specimens and continued collecting plants when we weren't there. But she was no good at testing, and ended up dropping out of middle school and going to Shanghai and Tianjin to work as a maid and factory worker. I think she would have made a great scientist. But I'm still glad US universities are reinstating the SAT--it's unfair to disadvantaged kids, but it's less unfair to disadvantaged kids than are ghost-written admissions essays and letters of recommendation from counselors who love to get their students into elite schools.

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Michael Rawding's avatar

Love this piece. Great interweaving of the personal experiences and societal dynamics across both cultures.

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