So, if you know a kid with a 26/27 ACT scores in an impoverished school with a school average of 17-19, that kid is more likely to get in than a kid with a 29 in a school with a much higher ACT average.

Tell kids if they did a lot better than their zip code to submit a score and apply.

Also, they waive application fee for anyone who gets free/reduced lunch or lives in subsidized housing.

Kudos to MIT. I would never have been admitted in 1981, but I did have the best ACT score at my school looking back even a few years (guy a year ahead of me had one less point and went to MIT - he is now a professor and is brilliant if a right wing wacko).

On second thought maybe I could have gotten into MIT. I did enter the engineering program directly at Purdue, but I thought it was mostly due to being from Mississippi and a first generation college student.

Of course once these students get to an exclusive college, they should have extra support because the competition is brutal. It is essential that we as a society pull students from throughout our population.

I just shared the link with my Daughters.

my family didn't make a lot of money, even adjusted for inflation. Back then ( mid 1970s ) all MIT could offer me was a partial scholarship plus a lab assistant job. I really tried to make the math work... but sadly, even with some loans, it just wasn't going to happen. My other choice was Stanford, and they turned me down. My final choice was my home state university, who gave me a full ride scholarship ( tuition, living expenses, books, etc ). Hello University of Kansas.

Funny how life works...

I ended up at Tufts, where I got to teach astronophysics as an undergrad and my physics advisor got a Nobel Prize.

I had friends in Cambridge and environs and it was the early days of microcomputing, so we were all self-taught computer nuts.

Once we leave college, most of what we learn is self-taught (IMO, anyway) and kids should be learning to learn and not just querying the chatbot to get answers. 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥