Meritocracy, SAT Scores, and Laundering Prestige at Elite Universities — #43
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Steve discusses 10 key graphs related to meritocracy and university admissions. Predictive power of SATs and other factors in elite admissions decisions. College learning outcomes - what do students learn? The four paths to elite college admission. Laundering prestige at the Ivies.

Slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1n-nwoeKe_DcA5tJxTwqTeZBEY7nObxkujKLxVfAzRAY/edit?usp=sharing)

CLA and College Learning outcomes:

https://infoproc.blogspot.com/2015/01/measuring-college-learning-outcomes.html)

Harvard Veritas: Interview with a recent graduate

https://infoproc.blogspot.com/2022/08/harvard-veritas-interview-with-recent.html)

Defining Merit - Human Capital and Harvard University:

https://infoproc.blogspot.com/2009/11/defining-merit.html)

Chapter markers:

0:00 Introduction 

1:28 University of California system report and the use of SAT scores admissions

8:04 Longitudinal study on gifted students and SAT scores (SMPY)

12:53 Unprecedented data on earnings outcomes and SAT scores

15:43 How SAT scores and university pedigree influence opportunities at elite firms

17:35 Non-academic factors fail to predict student success

20:49 Predicted earnings

24:24 Measured benefit of Ivy Plus attendance

28:25 CLA: 13 university study on college learning outcomes

32:34 Does college education improve generalist skills and critical thinking?

42:15 The composition of elite universities: 4 paths to admission

48:12 What happened to meritocracy?

51:48 Hard versus Soft career tracks

54:43 Cognitive elite at Ivies vs state flagship universities

57:11 What happened to Caltech?

Music used with permission from Blade Runner Blues Livestream improvisation by State Azure.

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Steve Hsu is Professor of Theoretical Physics and of Computational Mathematics, Science, and Engineering at Michigan State University. Previously, he was Senior Vice President for Research and Innovation at MSU and Director of the Institute of Theoretical Science at the University of Oregon. Hsu is a startup founder (SuperFocus.ai, SafeWeb, Genomic Prediction, Othram) and advisor to venture capital and other investment firms. He was educated at Caltech and Berkeley, was a Harvard Junior Fellow, and has held faculty positions at Yale, the University of Oregon, and MSU.