Don't Study, Play The Lottery

Well, you have to admit, this, from Bloomberg, is the logical conclusion to a chain of events that begins with dumping the SATs.

After yet another spring in which millions of American kids endured the anxiety of discovering whether their chosen colleges had accepted them, pundits are yet again lamenting the absurdity and social ills of the process. Why should a cabal of admissions officers hold so much sway over high-school students’ self-esteem and access to the elite?

Allow me to offer a radical solution: Fire the functionaries and use random selection instead.

In addition to being a raving maniac, the author, Cathy O'Neil has these qualifications.

Cathy O’Neil is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. She is a mathematician who has worked as a professor, hedge-fund analyst and data scientist.

Her essay has scare quotes in all the right places.

The progressive foundation New America has even made the idea — specifically, adopting lottery admissions at highly selective universities — part of its plan to achieve greater diversity in higher education. There could be a weak notion of who is “qualified” — say, a high school degree and a minimum grade point average. Beyond that, selection would be publicly and provably random. Never mind optional standardized tests. If you show interest, your name goes in a big hat.

"Qualified?" Ha! "Qualified" just means you've benefited from privileges. No more "qualifications" to find the  "strongest" candidates. Just a lottery.

Bloomberg Opinion. Not some mimeographed campus radical newsletter, Bloomberg.

Hard work is for chumps.