Reinstating our SAT/ACT requirement for future admissions cycles

Re:Reinstating our SAT/ACT requirement for future admissions... by zozbot234 on Monday March 28, 2022 @02:53PM (#30834133)

There's also a lot of room to disagree as to whether playing sports counts as a meaningful accomplishment. Professional sports are pure entertainment, and succeeding even at that is extremely rare. The best argument for caring about it is that it's better than nothing, and it's something that ensures more average people have a chance to get to MIT too, even if they aren't all that intellectually minded.

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Re:Reinstating our SAT/ACT requirement for future admissions... by WalterBright on Monday March 28, 2022 @02:56PM (#30834187)

Succeeding in sports means you have put out focused effort over a period of time to accomplish something that nobody made you do.

This is worth something.

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Re:Reinstating our SAT/ACT requirement for future admissions... by tmitech on Monday March 28, 2022 @03:05PM (#30834306)

I disagree completely. You could literally give zero effort, focused or not, and sit on the bench of a winning team. On top of that, your parents could have 100% made you do those things.

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Re:Reinstating our SAT/ACT requirement for future admissions... by Spooky23 on Monday March 28, 2022 @03:33PM (#30834596)

You could. You can just phone it in at work too, but most people don't. Sports are a place where kids figure out who they are. Not the only place, but an important one to many.

My son is 11 and loves baseball, I've coached a few times as well and it's been a great shared experience. There are definitely kids in Little League / Cal Ripkin who are there because mom & dad said so. But... I've gotten to see my son and a few of his teammates build friendships and mentor relationships with the kids ahead of and behind him that are difficult to do in a school setting.

It's a big deal. When a ten year old stops and is there to help teach an eight year old how to do something, etc those are valuable skills/processes/habits to build. They learn to lose and how to practice.

Part of the "package" a student brings to an application is how they apply those experiences. You can send a laundry list of things, or use your essay/interview to tie it together.

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Re:Reinstating our SAT/ACT requirement for future admissions... by airstrike on Monday March 28, 2022 @03:00PM (#30834235)

> something that nobody made you do

Uhh, that is definitely not a given

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