Make college admissions a crapshoot

The LA Times has a good article today about the utter ridiculousness that is the modern-day college admissions process. Barry Schwartz, a professor of psychology, proposes that colleges should only choose students that are "good enough" for admission. Then they would randomly select these students into the spaces available (or as he puts it "drawing them out of a hat").

He writes, "We like to believe, in our least cynical moments, that the U.S. is a meritocracy. Success is about talent and hard work. Luck has nothing to do with it. This attitude may well contribute to a lack of sympathy, sometimes even bordering on disdain, for life's losers. I believe that this attitude is profoundly false. It is not the case that people always get what they deserve. There just aren't enough top rungs on the Ivy League's (or life's) ladders for everyone to fit.

If talented and hardworking people are forced to confront the element of chance in life's outcomes when they (or their kids) fail to get into the "best" college, they may be more inclined to acknowledge the role of luck in shaping the lives of the people around them. And this may make them more empathic toward others — and a good deal more committed to creating more room at the top."
------

That's some important food for thought for everyone, including those of us already in college.