It is an interesting article. I like the standard test just Taiwan did. However, they abolished the method few years ago by a Nobel Prize Winner. It is a big failure.
Looking back, by testing only has a lot of problems. It is fair in a sense but isn’t. I would vote for 90% admissions based on testing and the rest of 10% by recommendations.
Look at our classmates today, they are pretty evenly divided based on their families background. 50% from privileged families and 50% from relatively under-privileged families. Right now, they are all pretty much okay, by the way Mom and I are looking at them.
Especially, in Chinese society, recommendation has a lot of problems, more problems than here in the USA. Chinese society in general always sides with rich and powerful, more so than here. Those 50% of my classmates from un-wealthy families did not stand a chance of getting in the National Taiwan University, just based on merits. But they did.
Kids from privileged families have already had much more advantages over those poor kids, for example, environments, resources, well-educated parents, more nutritious food [especially in my days], etc.
I am all for testing though it is not perfect. In ancient time, during all Chinese dynasties, cheating while testing, was a capital crime, few people tried that.
MIT is so cool. The Dean is right to be worried and concerned about the stresses of applying to college. I’m not sure what is going to change though, I think getting into MIT is harder than ever.
It is an interesting article. I like the standard test just Taiwan did. However, they abolished the method few years ago by a Nobel Prize Winner. It is a big failure.
Looking back, by testing only has a lot of problems. It is fair in a sense but isn’t. I would vote for 90% admissions based on testing and the rest of 10% by recommendations.
Look at our classmates today, they are pretty evenly divided based on their families background. 50% from privileged families and 50% from relatively under-privileged families. Right now, they are all pretty much okay, by the way Mom and I are looking at them.
Especially, in Chinese society, recommendation has a lot of problems, more problems than here in the USA. Chinese society in general always sides with rich and powerful, more so than here. Those 50% of my classmates from un-wealthy families did not stand a chance of getting in the National Taiwan University, just based on merits. But they did.
Kids from privileged families have already had much more advantages over those poor kids, for example, environments, resources, well-educated parents, more nutritious food [especially in my days], etc.
I am all for testing though it is not perfect. In ancient time, during all Chinese dynasties, cheating while testing, was a capital crime, few people tried that.
MIT is so cool. The Dean is right to be worried and concerned about the stresses of applying to college. I’m not sure what is going to change though, I think getting into MIT is harder than ever.