Maggie's Farm

I support the idea of "holistic" college admissions. Not "holistic" as an excuse to admit unprepared students, but holistic in the sense of students with many different talents and areas of potential besides just their SAT scores. (I would use SAT for screening, though, as it is essentially an IQ test.)

I will want musicians, mathematicians, writers, actors, geniuses, etc. I would want people who comport themselves as ladies and gentlemen. I would not have athletic admissions though except as an extra extracurricular on an otherwise desirable resume.

Some admissions officer somewhere claimed that Stanford could fill its entering class with Asians with perfect SAT scores. Well, those kids are smart, and driven. Some are surely overachieving drudges but so are some non-Asians. Some claim that Asians are the new Jews, discriminated against because of their drive and academic success.

If I ran a college, I would ignore race and ethnicity entirely, and look for interesting people with depth, curiosity, academic and other talents, energy, and integrity.

What would you do?