Failing grades soar with AI usage, dwindling math skills in Berkeley CS classes

Re:Failing grades soar with AI usage, dwindling math skills ... by 36733883 on Thursday June 04, 2026 @04:18AM (#48395723)

I worked in admissions for an Ivy League. We used a vibes based system based on how compelling a sob story you could concoct whilst staying on the good side of fraud. Ie you wanna aim for drug addict father black trans queer activist with autism etc whatever is on the NYT frontpage today. I know two companies whole line of business is just optimizing your sob story. Things are changing a bit now though, it did get a bit ridiculous around the years 0 - 4 AF (Anno Floyd). Core of the issue was always protecting legacy admissions and other grifts vs the deluge of Asian students with perfect test scores. I wish I was lying

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Re:Failing grades soar with AI usage, dwindling math skills ... by Forgeties79 on Thursday June 04, 2026 @07:50AM (#48397336)

Your comment sounds vibes-based

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Re:Failing grades soar with AI usage, dwindling math skills ... by plagiarist on Thursday June 04, 2026 @09:42AM (#48398532)

It sounds like yet another far-right racist spreading misinformation under a randomly generated username.

"Anno Floyd," fuck's sake, they have a severe brainworm infection to be mad at some guy murdered by police and the protesters upset by the situation. It is impossible to take a comment seriously with this.

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Re:Failing grades soar with AI usage, dwindling math skills ... by torben-friis on Thursday June 04, 2026 @06:32AM (#48396652)

>We used a vibes based system based on how compelling a sob story you could concoct whilst staying on the good side of fraud.

Besides lost meritocracy, that is accidentally filtering for ability and willingness to manipulate others emotionally. Which feels really scary.

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Re:Failing grades soar with AI usage, dwindling math skills ... by Forgeties79 on Thursday June 04, 2026 @07:49AM (#48397332)

Honestly I don’t believe a thing they’re saying. Just look at the demographics of any Ivy League school and you’ll see it can’t be true

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Re:Failing grades soar with AI usage, dwindling math skills ... by throwawy33z on Thursday June 04, 2026 @10:24AM (#48399135)

My kid applied to Brown and others and the prep company we hired ($150/hr) spent more time going through the "sob story" the parent talked about than any other requirement (kids scores are to be fair quite decent already).

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Re:Failing grades soar with AI usage, dwindling math skills ... by Forgeties79 on Thursday June 04, 2026 @01:36PM (#48401930)

I’m not saying that it’s dumb money to go with a sob story college admission essay, I just don’t think they’re being truthful with their experience. It reads like someone lifted a comment from /r/conservative about what they think the admissions process is.

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Re:Failing grades soar with AI usage, dwindling math skills ... by watwut on Thursday June 04, 2026 @07:22AM (#48397081)

Somehow majority of Ivy League students don't have those sob stories and did not had for last years either?

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