The college admissions process is a soul-sucking steeplechase where wealthy students get a 500-meter head-start, thanks to SAT prep courses, essay consultants, and the other various and sundry academic advantages that come with money. So you have to give some credit to Bard college, which is introducing a radical new admissions option this fall. Instead of high-stakes testing, the school wants to assign high-stakes homework.
Rather than submit a full battery of grades, teacher recs, SAT scores, and personal essays, Bard applicants will be able to choose to hand in four 2,500 word research papers, which will be graded by faculty. Applicants who earn a B+ or better on their writing will accepted, at which point they’ll need to submit a character reference from their high school, according to The New York Times. Students will still be able to apply through the normal process, but this adds another route. Here’s how Bard’s President explained the decision to the NYT.
“It’s kind of declaring war on the whole rigmarole of college admissions and the failure to foreground the curriculum and learning,” Leon Botstein, Bard’s president of 38 years, said in an interview. Saying the prevailing system was “loaded with a lot of nonsense that has nothing to do with learning,” he hailed the new approach as a “return to basics, to common sense” and added, “You ask the young person: are they prepared to do university-level work?”
As I said, credit the effort. But I have some misgivings.
One has to wonder how many high schoolers will actually be in the mood to write 10,000 total words on topics like Kant and the motion of Uranus, particularly if their academic record is already good enough to get into Bard. On its own, that’s not a terrible flaw, since the standard application process is being left in tact. However, this also seems like a system that’s begging to be gamed. While Bard will require that students to sign a statement vowing that they didn’t receive help on their work, it seems unfathomable to me that the same sorts of consultants who all but sign students’ names on applications today won’t be willing to offer, oh, I don’t know, a bit of “proof-reading” on these research papers.
To put it another way, Bard seems to have created an admissions option that’s vulnerable to cheating and will appeal most to less-than-stellar students, especially if they can enlist a bit of professional assistance.
Apparently, the college’s leaders are a bit less cynical about rabidly competitive parents and their 17-year-old children. “Why not show a measure of trust?” Dr. Botstein told the Times. “Go the other direction, not assume the kid is going to cheat on you. Let’s take the high road.”
You might say that rich students won’t be able to game Bard’s lightly policed admissions option any more than they hold an advantage in SAT-prep classes or essay consultants. One-time standardized tests and personal statements are imperfect measures of aptitude and fit, as well. But, as a rule, it seems smarter to judge college applicants on a cluster of flawed metrics that might balance each other out than on one extremely flawed assignment.
By Angela Harrison Education correspondent, BBC News
Some students found out their results early, as Reeta Chakrabart reports
There has been a fall in the proportion of A-levels awarded top grades for the second year in a row, after years of steady increases.
Just over a quarter of exam entries – 26.3% – were given A or A* grades, a slight fall on 2012′s figure of 26.6%.
Previously, the proportion getting top grades had risen year on year.
More than 300,000 teenagers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are finding out their A-level results, as universities compete to attract them.
The national breakdown of results shows the overall pass rate rose marginally – to 98.1%. It has been rising for about 30 years.
As expected, the results show more students are opting to do A-levels in maths and science and there is a continued fall in those taking French and German, down by 10% and 11% respectively. However, Spanish bucks that trend and has seen an increase in entries of 4%.
Mary Curnock Cook, Ucas: “My advice is take your time. Don’t make a rush decision”
Economics was the subject that saw the biggest rise in entries – up 7.4%. Chemistry rose by 5.2% and physics by 3.1%. Maths rose by just under 3% and further maths by 4.5%.
Language disappointment
Girls are still more likely than boys to get an A* or an A, but boys this year were slightly more likely to get the highest grade – A*.
A total of 7.9% of boys’ entries got an A*, compared with 7.4% of those of girls.
When As and A*s are grouped together, girls perform best – with 26.7% of their entries hitting this mark, compared with 25.9% for those of boys.
Sarah got two As and one B, but missed out on a place to study medicine
Director of the JCQ Michael Turner said: “The continued rise in subjects such as the sciences, maths and the extended project will be welcomed.
“However, that so few students take a language at A-level is disappointing and although Spanish continues to show growth, the overall trend remains downwards.”
Last year, schools challenged the grading of English GCSEs in the courts, arguing that grades had been unfairly held down, but lost their case.
Asked if the exam boards had come under pressure from Ofqual over A-levels this year, a JCQ spokesperson said “absolutely not”.
Brian Lightman, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) said the results showed that A-levels were “stable” and that “minor fluctuations” in grades were to be expected.
At the Ucas call centre in Cheltenham, the questions from students seeking guidance and reassurance have been coming thick and fast from early in the morning. Staff were answering queries on Twitter and Facebook from 06:00.
Overall, the picture looks relatively positive. The number being accepted into a UK university so far is up by 9% at 386,000.
Ucas says that is in part because demand from students is higher and universities have made more offers. But it may also be because universities are processing applications faster, having become more experienced in negotiating the new terrain of university competition.
With about 30,000 courses available on clearing at the start of the day, the choice for young people remains giddying and applicants are advised to use the helpline and the Ucas website to get expert advice, as well as speaking directly to university admission officers.
He said the association had not heard any noticeable concerns from schools about the grading this year – in stark contrast to what happened over the GCSE results last year.
The university admissions body Ucas has said a record number of students have been accepted by UK universities.
As of midnight, 385,910 students had been accepted, 31,600 more than at the same point last year and a rise of 9%.
Universities Minister David Willetts told the BBC this was because of government reforms to open up the system and make it easier for universities “to take on the people that they want to recruit”.
Under changes, universities in England are being allowed to admit as many top-performing students as they want to.
Many will be hoping not to repeat last year’s experience, where thousands of course places were left unfilled.
Universities Minister David Willetts: “More young people than ever are going to get their first choice university place”
Last year universities were allowed to take in extra students who had the top grades of at least AAB or the equivalent, but this year that pool of students has been increased to include anyone achieving ABB or more.
About 100,000 teenagers make that grade.
Universities are given individual limits for the number of undergraduates they can recruit with results lower than that.
The change was part of a move to increase market forces in England’s university system and allow popular universities to expand. It came in alongside higher tuition fees, which rose to a maximum of £9,000 a year from autumn 2012.
‘Competitive market’
Wendy Piatt, director general of the Russell Group, which represents 24 institutions including Oxford and Cambridge, said universities might have more places to offer well-qualified students through clearing, the process that matches students to spare course places.
Durham, Leeds, Nottingham and Birmingham universities are among those Russell Group institutions offering places through clearing this year.
The results released today are for A and AS-level exams taken by pupils in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Among the nations, teenagers in Northern Ireland continue to do best – with 83.5% of entries scoring between an A* and a C and 30.7% getting an A or A*.
In Wales, the figures are 75.2% and 22.9% respectively and in England, they are 77% and 26.3%.
Pupils in Scotland got the results of their Highers and Standard Grades early last week, with the pass rate for both rising slightly.
While many teenagers start work at 18, more than half of UK A-level students opt to go on to university. About 40% of 18-year-olds take at least one A-level.
From 2015 the government plans to change A-levels so that the AS-level will no longer count towards the final A-level grade and all exams will be taken at the end of two years.
Have you received your results today? Are you pleased with your grades? Are you confused about your next step? The BBC has two career experts ready to answer your questions. You can get in touch using the form below. A selection will be published in a Q&A later:
Have you received your results today? Are you pleased with your grades? Are you confused about your next step? The BBC has two career experts ready to answer your questions. You can get in touch using the form below. A selection will be published in a Q&A later: