Kids With Good Grades — but No Hardships — Struggle to Enter College

Fox News ^ | Tuesday, August 13, 2002 | Trace Gallagher

[CatoRenasci]

It is a bit confusing, and, to be fair, I have a bit of sympathy for the admissions officers who have to figure out what the grades really mean. Especially when you have some very competitive high schools with little grade inflation -- where you get the phenomenon of a kid with a 3.5 GPA and only in the top 20% of his or her class, but a National Merit Scholar with 1550 SATs.

Interestingly on the SATs, on the old Turnouts board a year or so ago, there was a discussion of SATs at Mother I. It seems that (without adjusting for the renorming) the average scores are finally back to where they were for the classes of '69 (highest) and '70 (a coulple of points lower, but statistically insignificant), the last classes to enter before the Vietnam War cut the applicant pool by almost 2/3 for some years. (The academic push was the fruit of Milton's tenure, although he had been replaced by Buddy -double all the penalties - Shell '31 by that time).

Yours in the bonds, CatoR '70

[Samwise]

This program is nothing more than a blatant attempt to get around bans on affirmative action. A life hardship will equal belonging to a favored minority group.

Bingo.

[decimon]

Military experience? How does getting a bit of college credit grab you?

http://www.excelsior.edu/

This is a fully accredited college with no classrooms of its own. It evaluates for credit what the student has done elsewhere. I'd think that a lot of freepers would be interested as you can make your own education, within their guidelines, and escape what you hate about the campus.

[matrix]

Good site.

I a knew a guy who went from a GED to a PhD while on active duty, using mostly courses offered at remote "campuses" like the U of Maryland and Troy U.

He made news in the AF Times.

[decimon]

I a knew a guy who went from a GED to a PhD while on active duty, using mostly courses offered at remote "campuses" like the U of Maryland and Troy U.

He has my respect. John Bear (books on alternative education) described a Sergeant who got a Bachelor's degree from Excelsior College (when it was Regent's College) through credit gained from passing Graduate Exams.

I really think that Excelsior has merit for those with political or religious objections to the regular campuses.

[Michael2001]

Taylor might have had a better chance of being accepted at both schools if he’d suffered a gunshot wound, gone to a bad high school or was the son of divorced parents.

Some day soon some kid will shoot himself in the leg in order to get into college, and then they'll sue the schools.