[Editorial] Let Colleges Choose Their Own Students

With the announcement of a new policy to select students for colleges, the academic gap among high schools has become the point of content. As CSAT (College Scholastic Aptitude Test) results will be notified in the form of grades, rather than scores, an applicant’s college entrance will be determined mainly by his or her GPA. However, there is a credibility issue over GPAs such as grade inflation. Additionally, they do not reflect the gap in academic performance among high schools.

Nevertheless, it is an admissions officer’ duty to treat the same level of GPAs equally, regardless of their quality. There are flaws in GPA-centered admission processes which may cause reverse discrimination. This is why some argue that high school rankings and college-conducted exams should be allowed to close the loopholes.

The recent announcement that the average scores of the same city-wide test in Seoul was 70 at one school and 44 at another further fueled to the controversy. How can GPAs be accepted as a fair gauge for academic performances in the admission process when the academic gap is so wide? Education officials’ answer to this question cannot be but trite.

The controversy is caused by the new policy itself. It will make a nationwide test, which all college applicants take on the same day, impotent as a gauge for academic performances. And in response, new ways to measure them will be put in demand. If the government came out and quelled one measure of the admission process which should differentiate applicants according to their academic ability, it is entirely natural that an alternative should emerge.

The only solution is to give more autonomy to colleges in selecting their own students. Since it is their inherent right to choose their own students, colleges should be given more freedom. In response, colleges should develop diverse ways to choose students and enhance an opportunity for the downtrodden to receive college education as part of their social responsibility.

Yesterday, admissions directors of major colleges nationwide agreed to the principle that colleges should have autonomy in selecting students. It was merely a reconfirmation of their inherent right. However, it is fortunate that they are attempting to make their own voice. A reformist government should not force state-controlled college admission processes as the military regime did in the 1970s and the 1980s.