Policy Paper Regarding College Admission

 The administration of Generic University has just hired you to write a proposal for their admissions policy. Generic is a well-known, top-tiered national university. It is considering revamping admissions; you must write a report with specific recommendations. There are two critical questions to be addressed. 1. Generic University is considering a race-blind policy where ethnic and racial information is scrubbed form the applications before admission officers make their decisions. Currently, admissions officers are told about race, gender, and income. 2. Generic University is considering adapting its standardized test requirement. Currently, all applicants must submit an ACT or SAT I. Here is some background information, all of which should play prominently in your report. a. Generic’s ideal class size is 2,000 students. One-in-three of every accepted applicants choose to attend. Hence, there are 6,000 admission spots. There are 30,000 applicants that vie for these 6,000 spots. b. Generic’s stated policy is to recognize that the US is a multiethnic democracy. It seeks neither to favor nor to disadvantage any segment in admissions. c. Generic’s demographics look typical for top-tier, national universities. The ethnic breakdown is 60% White, 20% Asian, 10% Latinx, 5% African American, and 5% other. The gender breakdown is 52% men and 48% women. Half the students come from families with incomes exceeding 200K; about 12% come from families with incomes under 75K. d. Currently, Generic uses a number of factors in admission. The most important of these are SAT scores. In fact, Generic is so selective that the vast majority of students have scores in the top 20% nationwide. I Executive Summary II Statement of Goals in Admissions. What are the goals for Generic? How should they be ranked? III Operational Definition of Fairness. Here you should do a bit of research into philosophy. Rely on John Stuart Mills, John Rawles, Amartya Sen IV History of Standardized Testing What have been the broad trends in testing from its inception to the current climate. V History of Race/Ethnicity/Income in universities VI Recommendations about Testing in light of goals VII. Recommended about race blindness in light of goals VIII Anticipated impacts of policy recommendations. IX. Alternatives considered but not recommended. Why?