The problem with that, though, is firstly that we aren't talking about folks who are performing poorly. Or receiving poor educations. We are talking about young people who start out way behind and still manage to catch up during their schooling, but catching up, even performing well, may not put them high enough into the top tier to get a place in medical school. We are talking about young people who were forced by circumstances to work or care for a disabled family member while going to school and still out-performed most of their classmates, but not quite well enough to get into medical school. We are talking about young people who, despite tumultuous or abusive home life that led to being taken into care, they succeeded against all the odds, but fell short by a grade of making it into their university of choice. We are talking about young people with ADHD or autism who worked much harder than many of their peers because they had to, but still fell a little short.Psamathe wrote: ↑24 Nov 2022, 3:25pm
What concerns me about these "schemes" is that I feel entry should be according to capability (not over/under-priviledge). If your demonstrated abilities are in the top range for the available places (and above minimum threshold) you get a place.
Rather than introducing weird bias attempts at making up for e.g. poor schooling, fix the e.g. inadequate schooling rather than bodge bias into higher level entries.
Ian
We are not talking about accepting a C student just because they are a member of an ethnic minority.
These aren't weird bias attempts. These are legitimately giving disadvantaged young people a chance for something better. It's more like creating a balanced scoring system for applicants that includes more than just grades.
Do you really think that it is better to select 10 kids who could get an A* with the help of private tutors? Or 8 kids who got A* with the help of private tutors and 2 kids who got mostly As and did that despite the kind of challenges I've described and despite a lack of private tutors? To be honest, I think the second is a better measure of success than the first.