Colleges and universities that have made tests scores optional and have placed heavy emphasis on personal essays are setting themselves up for scamming (“How college applicants embellish essays with sob stories, fake patents,” New York Post, Jan. 13). That shouldn’t come as a surprise.
What impresses admissions officers most of all are stories of personal hardship. Students who can show how they overcame such obstacles automatically get a leg up in being admitted. As a result, students are flat out lying about their backgrounds or embellishing their personal histories. In either case, that’s the predictable outcome of holistic admissions.
Standardized test scores have their own shortcomings, but at least they are objective.
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