First-Year Seminars 110MT - Measuring Merit: Who Belongs in College and Why?

Selective colleges like Mount Holyoke are prestigious, in part, because they admit less than half of the students who apply; but what specific traits make one worthy of admissions? Grades and test scores matter, as do field hockey prowess, the ability to play classical flute, participation in a Model UN summer camp, and struggles to overcome poverty or hardship. This class considers the origins and consequences of our understanding of worthiness in the context of college admissions. We will use the case of college admissions to address important questions about how social phenomena are quantified and compared, and how cultures of measurement represent power and shape inequality.

Mount Holyoke first-year students only, by placement.