Hundreds of students' SAT tests flew off a UPS truck and are now lost

[Amstrad]

I have a very solid personal policy of not living in hindsight or dwelling on past mistakes. If I did I’d be depressed more often that I am currently. That said I also don’t lie to myself, and so acknowledge that my inability to engage with topics or work I’m uninterested in is extremely detrimental.

[AnthonyC]

You’ve also never been required to have a boatload of awards and extracurricular activities to get into the most selective schools, and yet, admissions is an arms race among students for spots. Or at least, it’s often seen that way, however dumb and unnecessarily stressful that is.

It’s been 15 years since anyone I’ve known applied to college. Back then they were already talking about how many schools didn’t require standardized tests, but it was with a wink-wink-nudge-nudge-you-better-take-them-anyway-or-else. Has that finally gone away, or started to go away?

[DukeTrout]

Many schools now refuse to consider SAT scores. They aren’t just optional, they are ignored.

[ClutchLinkey]

Pardon me if I’m missing some kind of behind the scenes camaraderie, but barring that this comment to @chgoliz comes across as very presumptuous and not a little condescending. I think Liz and I are of a vintage, and I somewhat recently found myself applying for grad school. Test results and other activities came into play. You don’t know other peoples lives.
To the main topic, though, I kind of hope this kind of story will make kids and their guardians reevaluate the schools they think are so necessary, and why they want to go there so badly. And maybe look more at other options with smaller class sizes, lower tuition costs, higher instructor to student ratios, and all that jazz.

[AnthonyC]

Thanks for pointing it out. I do have a general problem with coming off as condescending when I don’t mean to. I was honestly just trying to (in a lighthearted way) update my understanding of how much progress we’ve made (or not) in moving away from a standardized testing focus, or if there is still just as much pretending-to-move-away from it going on as there was circa 2005.

I also completely agree about reevaluating what schools each person would prefer to go to. I made a good choice for undergrad and a terrible choice for grad school, in both cases kinda by chance, since I didn’t know what I was really aiming for and why.