MIT Relents

Two years ago, under cover of Covid, MIT, as venerable a STEM school as exists, dispensed with its requirement that applicants submit standardized test scores.

Many other schools have done the same. The reasoning involved, you guessed it, diversity, inclusion and equity. Since Asian students invariably got better results on the SAT or ACT, the grandees at MIT and elsewhere decided that the tests were biased toward white people. And especially, were biased against black people.

Thus, following the lead of many other institutions, MIT decided to go holistic. That means, granting applicants extra SAT points for having a scintillating personality or for having special personal knowledge of crime ridden neighborhoods. Of course, it also tried an approach used throughout the country, that is, granting special consideration to students who had finished near the top of their high school class. 

The trouble was, as MIT has discovered, grade inflation is pervasive in some schools. Therefore, many top high school students are seriously incompetent when it comes to basic calculus, to say nothing of algebra.

MIT discovered that certain members of the incoming classes over the past two years have been seriously incapable of doing the math.

As it happens, first year students at the school are required to take some high level math classes. They need to master the math if they will ever be capable of taking courses in the STEM subjects that define the institution. Heck, even economics majors are required to know advanced math, like multivariable calculus and real analysis.

So, MIT had to relent. But not without a pathetic outpouring of virtue signaling, to the effect that it still loves students, still favors diversity, but, alas, it cannot remain the institution that it is, and it cannot set up Ethnic Studies programs and an anti-racist curriculum for those who can’t do the math.

An excerpt from the MIT announcement says this:

And MIT does provide support for its students through its excellent tutoring programs, affinity networks, support services, alternative curricula, summer programs, and so on. However, our research shows there is a degree of preparation below which a student, even with those resources, is unlikely to be able to succeed. We feel it is our responsibility to make those difficult calls, and only admit a student to MIT if they are ready to undertake its education at this point in their educational development. Meanwhile, we continue to collaborate with our partners in K-12 education to try and help interrupt persistent, intergenerational inequality where and how we can.⁠

That’s the story, folks. You can whine and whinge and whinny all you want about remedial work, about tutoring and support, but some candidates simply cannot do the work.