The inner machinations
Posted: Wed Nov 09, 2011 10:12 am
Aside from the scandalousness of the UIUC number changing, the episode sheds some light on the admissions process. How does this affect the way we should see the competitiveness and quality of law schools in general?
1. UIUC had wild swings in their numbers, although they obviously preferred not to report that. What are schools generally doing to avoid such swings? Does it raise suspicions that maybe the consistency indicates other schools also lying?
2. As far as we know, despite the wildly different numbers, there has been no claim that students were actually differently qualified. What does that say about the acceptance qualifications?
3. It seems that the numbers can be manipulated with great precision, i.e. by having or losing one student on the higher side of the median, you can theoretically raise the median by a full point, (or, conceivably 2 or even more). What does that say about the system of reporting medians without reporting averages or standard deviations?
4. Who's next?
1. UIUC had wild swings in their numbers, although they obviously preferred not to report that. What are schools generally doing to avoid such swings? Does it raise suspicions that maybe the consistency indicates other schools also lying?
2. As far as we know, despite the wildly different numbers, there has been no claim that students were actually differently qualified. What does that say about the acceptance qualifications?
3. It seems that the numbers can be manipulated with great precision, i.e. by having or losing one student on the higher side of the median, you can theoretically raise the median by a full point, (or, conceivably 2 or even more). What does that say about the system of reporting medians without reporting averages or standard deviations?