The psychologist Barry Schwartz recently proposed that elite schools give up their complex admissions process and simply hold a lottery for everyone above the threshold. Put people into two categories, Schwartz says. Good enough and not good enough. The ones who are good enough get put into a hat. And those who are not good enough get rejected.
Psychologist Barry Schwartz has suggested a radical change in how elite schools handle their admissions process. Instead of the complicated criteria currently in use, he proposes a simpler lottery system for all applicants who meet a minimum threshold. This approach would categorize students into two groups: those deemed good enough and those who are not. The lucky individuals from the 'good enough' group would enter the lottery and have a chance at admission, while others would face rejection.
This idea, discussed in Malcolm Gladwell's book "Outliers: The Story of Success," challenges conventional beliefs about merit in school admissions. Schwartz's proposal aims to eliminate biases and potentially make the admission process fairer, focusing on the chance for all qualified students rather than a detailed evaluation that can often be subjective and exclusionary.
