About Harvard University. Obviously I would not know for sure what they would do if people were clearly categorized into different IQ levels. But I still would say that it is possible that they get social pressures to provide a quota for each category. It is very difficult to guess how the public reacts to certain matters until you actually feel it in the air, just as it appears impossible to us that the majority of the German populace did not see anything wrong with their government’s treatment of the Jews. A good counter argument for the quota is Affirmative Action. "The best and the brightest" in this case was the best and the brightest of African Americans not necessarily the best and the brightest overall. I’m not familiar with how Harvard dealt with Affirmative Action, but if some of the best universities can be pressured to provide a quota for a specific race, I don’t see why in the future they would not get pressures to provide quotas for different IQ levels.
Even now, there are many varying theories about intelligence and success in life. Many argue that while it is helpful to have a high IQ, it is not at all the absolute measure of success. We have qualities that contribute to success in life which cannot be measured. Trying to devise a way to measure these qualities would most likely fail. Accepting the fact that these qualities cannot be measured, using SAT scores as the main determinant for college acceptance, will be viewed as unfairly biased. Society, then, may pressure colleges to accept students all across the IQ range, just to ensure that students who are not the best and the brightest in terms of IQ can also have the opportunities to get the best education. This is just a hypothetical argument that I can imagine someone could come up with. It may happen or it may not, but my original point was to illustrate how different acknowledgements or ignorance of statistical facts can affect our society.
A Random Comment from January 28, 2002
Hi Bucket Rider,
About Harvard University. Obviously I would not know for sure what they would do if people were clearly categorized into different IQ levels. But I still would say that it is possible that they get social pressures to provide a quota for each category. It is very difficult to guess how the public reacts to certain matters until you actually feel it in the air, just as it appears impossible to us that the majority of the German populace did not see anything wrong with their government’s treatment of the Jews. A good counter argument for the quota is Affirmative Action. "The best and the brightest" in this case was the best and the brightest of African Americans not necessarily the best and the brightest overall. I’m not familiar with how Harvard dealt with Affirmative Action, but if some of the best universities can be pressured to provide a quota for a specific race, I don’t see why in the future they would not get pressures to provide quotas for different IQ levels.
Even now, there are many varying theories about intelligence and success in life. Many argue that while it is helpful to have a high IQ, it is not at all the absolute measure of success. We have qualities that contribute to success in life which cannot be measured. Trying to devise a way to measure these qualities would most likely fail. Accepting the fact that these qualities cannot be measured, using SAT scores as the main determinant for college acceptance, will be viewed as unfairly biased. Society, then, may pressure colleges to accept students all across the IQ range, just to ensure that students who are not the best and the brightest in terms of IQ can also have the opportunities to get the best education. This is just a hypothetical argument that I can imagine someone could come up with. It may happen or it may not, but my original point was to illustrate how different acknowledgements or ignorance of statistical facts can affect our society.