The Future of Education: Diversity and Equity

SocratesPost is always on the frontlines scouring the news for relevant updates in the college admissions landscape. We look for anything that can help shape our understanding of the latest trends in admissions and help our readers see the direction in which we’re moving.

Questions we explored this week:

  • Law school starts accepting admissions based on GRE. Which one?
  • A university defends legacy admissions. Which one?
  • A corporate group sponsors a scholarship program for Black Americans. Which one?

Loyola College of Law

The Loyola University New Orleans College of Law is now accepting candidates who have taken the GRE (Graduate Record Examination). Previously, it only accepted the LSAT (Law School Admissions Test), administered by the LSAC. The institute believes that doing so will broaden and diversify its applicant pool. Making the LSAT optional also means attracting international students.

What does this mean? There’s a growing trend among US universities to make education more accessible and affordable to students. While the LSAT is specific to law-related institutes, the GRE is accepted by most universities.

Read more here.

Brown University

Amidst mounting criticism against legacy admissions in the US, the President of Brown University, Christina Paxon, remarked that she defends legacy admissions and preferential treatment of the alumni’s children. She claimed that legacy admissions are often misconstrued and thought of as a tool that makes education inequitable. In reality, however, it doesn’t. Many legacy admissions in Brown University were of students of different ethnicities who required financial aid.

What does this mean? Brown University’s advocacy for legacy admissions opens up a new door for reflection for education policymakers. The more important question one has to wrestle with now is whether there’s an effective alternative that will make education more equitable. If not, legacy admissions do not necessarily threaten the diversity in education, as often purported.

Read more here.

CBRE Group Inc.

CBRE, an American commercial real-estate firm, has announced a scholarship program for students belonging to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). The HBCU program intends on providing recipients real-world experience in commercial real estate, enabling them to foster their careers in the field.

What does this mean? The HCBU scholarship is privately funded, so of course, it will have tough competition. However, the ramifications of such a pilot program will be huge if it’s successful. Education leaders can analyze the outcomes it has and incorporate them in their own state-led education policy directives. Apart from that, CBRE’s scholarship program shows that even the corporate sector is now taking interest in offering scholarships to bright minds, partly because they want a consistent pipeline of young brilliant minds working at their companies.

Read more here.

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