Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Ivy League schools drop 'culturally biased' standardized test requirement to increase "diversity"
Campus Reform ^ | 11/15/2019 | Celine Ryan

Posted on 11/15/2019 7:40:06 PM PST by SeekAndFind

Two Ivy League universities have announced that many graduate programs will no longer require the traditional standardized Graduate Records Examination testing requirements for applications, citing reasons pertaining to "diversity" and concerns that such tests are "biased" against minority and low-income students.

Both Princeton University and Brown University recently announced that they are moving away from standardized testing requirements for graduate admission in the name of creating a more diverse student body.

"there is concern that standardized tests are culturally biased in favor of certain groups"   

Princeton announced its decision to do away with the standardized test for 14 different graduate programs in September, calling the Graduate Records Examination (GRE) biased against minority groups.

[RELATED: College ditches SAT/ACT requirement to ‘increase the diversity’ of students]

Princeton Graduate School associate dean for access, diversity, and inclusion Renita Miller cited a need for "intellectual diversity" within graduate programs, as well as the importance of "demographic diversity." She insists that doing away with the requirement will help Princeton to achieve its goal "to identify, attract and develop the most promising individuals from as many segments of society as possible."

“Universities like Princeton have done a good job at expanding and diversifying their undergraduate populations,” Miller added. “If we want to make similar strides on the graduate level, we must find new ways to recruit and enroll graduate students who may be the first in their families to attend college, and from low-income and underrepresented backgrounds.”

The assertion is that one way to do this is to do away with standardized testing, because, as Princeton director of graduate studies for classics Johannes Haubold puts it, "there is concern that standardized tests are culturally biased in favor of certain groups; and that they end up testing primarily how good one is at taking tests." Haubold also brought up resource concerns, noting that some students can afford coaching for standardized tests while others cannot.

[RELATED: SAT spikes social justice-themed 'adversity scores'...kind of]

Brown University announced a similar initiative earlier in October, eliminating GRE requirements for 24 doctoral programs. The university reasoned that doing so would "attract a wider pool of applicants" and "reduce barriers that discourage some students from groups historically underrepresented in higher education and from low-income backgrounds from applying for admission."

Brown Graduate School Dean Andrew G. Campbell insisted that “by removing the Graduate School’s GRE requirement and allowing programs to decide whether to require the exam, we will broaden the talent pool of students who apply to and have access to graduate education at Brown.”

Both universities' new policies will go into effect for applications for programs starting in fall 2020. Among programs with modified requirements are both universities’ neuroscience programs, as well as Princeton's molecular biology graduate program and Brown's biomedical engineering and biotechnology programs.

The moves by Princeton and Brown to drop GRE requirements for some graduate programs comes just months after another Ivy League school, Cornell University, dropped the same requirement from its biomedical engineering program over concerns that such requirements "can be biased against" women, minorities.



TOPICS: Education; Society
KEYWORDS: gre; princeton; testing; university
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-36 last
To: SeekAndFind

Congratulations Academia, DIVERSITY HAS COME TO MEAN STUPIDITY.

And it is all due to your manipulation.


21 posted on 11/16/2019 3:36:52 AM PST by Maris Crane
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Who carez if some brijges fall down?


22 posted on 11/16/2019 3:49:44 AM PST by Travis McGee (EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

You know why there aren’t any dwarves in the NBA? Rulers are culturally biased.


23 posted on 11/16/2019 3:51:16 AM PST by Brooklyn Attitude (Civil War II has begun, but only one side is fighting.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

When the tests continually show you something, you should pay attention to what the tests are saying. When it’s every type of test, over and over again, saying that some people perform poorly, it’s time to admit what the tests are telling you.


24 posted on 11/16/2019 4:02:12 AM PST by I want the USA back (The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those who speak it. Orwell.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

I believe that when the quality of our graduate schools noticeably decline, less foreign students will end up coming here if they have access to more academically oriented universities elsewhere. There are cultures that actually want their youth to learn something. Our culture used to expect excellence. Now colleges are just a way to use taxpayer money to reward liberals and create more of them.


25 posted on 11/16/2019 4:41:52 AM PST by KittyKares (Drain the Swamp)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Travis McGee

I be your heart surgeon.


26 posted on 11/16/2019 4:44:39 AM PST by golux (In Memory of 2ndDivisionVet)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: GOPJ

I was in college 30 years ago, and one whole building was dedicated to “remedial classes”. The students were all black & Hispanic high school graduates, and they didn’t have the minimum HS requirements for college - so they were taking high school classes at college. As I understood it, many dropped out; they weren’t getting any college credits for a year or more.

Whites and Asians lacking those classes from high school were outright rejected by the college.


27 posted on 11/16/2019 4:44:49 AM PST by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Yeah, cause knowing things is for white peoples.


28 posted on 11/16/2019 4:47:46 AM PST by CodeToad
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
A recent poll found that most college graduates didn't think college prepared them for a career in the real world.

And yet they continue to go deep into debt in exchange for indoctrination and no real skills.


29 posted on 11/16/2019 4:56:51 AM PST by Sirius Lee (They are openly stating that they intend to murder us. Prep if you want to live.>>>)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Note to companies: Hire graduates of these universities at your own risk. (Remember, if a person can’t meet the most basic qualifications to get what they want, its racism and the system that is broken.......)


30 posted on 11/16/2019 5:22:15 AM PST by Midwesterner53
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

all hale equal dumbness


31 posted on 11/16/2019 6:08:05 AM PST by Pollard (If you don't understand what I typed, you haven't read the classics.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
WYCK: George, the quailifications for this scholarship were suppose to be.. largely academic.

GEORGE: I'm sure we're all aware of the flaws and biases of standardized tests..

WYCK: These aren't standardized tests - these are his grades.


32 posted on 11/16/2019 6:17:51 AM PST by Larry Lucido
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

“there is concern that standardized tests are culturally biased in favor of certain groups”

There is apparently no concern that lowering standards will call into question the qualifications of every student who is accepted into graduate school. Every student will now be stigmatized by this feel-good, idiotic move.


33 posted on 11/16/2019 6:26:56 AM PST by SharpRightTurn (Chuck Schumer--giving pond scum everywhere a bad name.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: kearnyirish2

More dumbing down........here come the ignorant, incompetent doctors...yippee


34 posted on 11/16/2019 3:01:11 PM PST by faturism ( rayrthe)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: faturism

What happens is that the industry-specific standardized tests (for licensing/certification) tend to end the charade. A “preferred minority” co-worker has a child who completed law school but can’t pass the bar exam despite repeated attempts; a fried describes the same with a token engineering co-worker. They go nowhere, and simply fill token slots - but the government will point to the uneven outcomes as “discrimination”.

Employers would need the same protection for these employees that they would need for released convicts; the largest obstacle to hiring either category is the liability of something catastrophic happening as a result of employing them (a doctor botching a procedure or a convict killing a co-worker or customer). Who pays the legal bills? It should be the government coercing the employers to take on the risky employees.


35 posted on 11/17/2019 3:34:27 AM PST by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

cited a need for “intellectual diversity” .....

Translation: We have noticed that mostly smart people go to our school, we need to change that, WE NEED MORE STUPID PEOPLE, NOW!!!


36 posted on 11/17/2019 3:50:00 AM PST by machman
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-36 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson