Posted by Kenneth Anderson:
What Kinds of Girls Are Upper Tier Colleges Looking For?
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2009_08_02-2009_08_08.shtml#1249754956
That's the question I put to a someone close to the admissions process
at a reasonably selective school recently. His/her reply, which he/she
would be the first to admit was deliberately highly exaggerated for
maximum epigraphical effect, was (I've edited and cleaned up a
disjointed conversation, so this is not a literal transcription). You
can understand why my discussant was not interested in being
identified and, as I say, this was exaggerated for maximum shock
value.
(Although this is perhaps less shocking to Our Readership than I
think, I still have a feeling I am going to regret putting this up. On
the other hand, as an official card-carrying [1]Bobo and father of a
teen daughter coming up on college admissions, I have this undeniable
fascination.)
Selective schools are not interested these days in girls who like
English and history, like to read and are able to write clearly and
well. Those skills fill the bell curve for smart girls ...
Selective schools have absorbed the folk myths of bobo culture. So
cool girls are math smart, genetically destined to be hackers, risk
takers, and into competitive sports. Cool girls for selective
schools prefer engineering over history, math over English,
computer science over political science, and economics over
psychology. A touch of Asperger's isn't a bad thing for a girl,
either. Actually, it's a great thing. It will be a long time before
being able to write well, disconnected from technical skills in
math or science, will be a valued skill for its own sake in
admissions. Actually, I don't think writing as a valued skill is
ever coming back. That's why writing got transferred over to the
SAT.
References
1.
http://www.amazon.com/Bobos-Paradise-Upper-Class-There/dp/0684853787/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249755835&sr=8-1
_______________________________________________
Volokh mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.powerblogs.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/volokh
