Dialogue Portfolio for College Admissions
Beginning this admissions season, colleges like the University of Chicago, Johns Hopkins University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Vanderbilt University, Columbia University, Colby College, Northwestern University, and Washington University will begin accepting “dialogues” portfolios from Schoolhouse. world, a platform co-founded by Sal Khan, the founder of Khan Academy.
This offers a notable shift following the Supreme Court’s decision to ban affirmative action; colleges appear to be pivoting from race-based inquiries to questions centered around how students handle disagreement.
What Schoolhouse. world Promises
Schoolhouse. World Connects high school students from across the world for 1-on-1 Zoom conversations to exchange their views on important and global topics like climate change, immigration, and artificial intelligence. The idea: to witness how students navigate differing viewpoints with curiosity and open-mindedness.
Intellectual diversity to ideological conformity,
The colleges relying on this forum to judge students based on their viewpoints are a reminder about how the admission process is transforming from admitting genuine intellectual diversity to ideological conformity, fostering an echo chamber rather than an inclusive academic environment. Also, this requires an arbitrator to decide “who is right” and “what is the right way,” which undermines the creative learning environment that elite colleges offer.
While at the surface this seems like fostering intellectually engaging conversations, dig a bit deeper and it raises critical concerns.
The online portal, allowing students to present the best version of themselves, could result in showcasing fake civility by students from privileged backgrounds who can afford to be trained to navigate these expectations. Students are taught to package their opinions into polished soundbites. This process undermines the goal of having honest dialogues and is overtaken by the urge to impress admissions officers, hence hiding their authentic voice. It also ironically leaves behind genuine students who are untrained. Teaching students to showcase superficial calmness as a sign of maturity discourages the uncomfortable but essential process of real growth.
Regulating Thoughts as a Policy Decision?
Why are colleges so keen to regulate students’ thoughts? Could the underlying reason be to keep the government happy by being able to showcase who they are admitting, so that their research grants and government funding continue without any disruption?
Instead of policing the applicants, colleges need to equip professors to facilitate challenging conversations, and at the same time, expand disciplines like philosophy, history, and political theory, fields that foster critical thinking and the ability to engage with disagreement.
The AI Essay Era: A New Challenge for Admissions
With the rise of AI, colleges are finding it an uphill task to understand if the stories they read truly reflect students. Does the student in reality possess the linguistic prowess and maturity of thought to write a compelling essay, or has the student adopted an AI tool to give his essay a voice? With admission officers being thrown a curveball with the perfect essays, “dialogue portfolios” could present a novel solution to the growing unreliability of the written essay.
Conclusion
Diversity is not perfect. Its beauty lies in its jagged edges and the many imperfections that make each student’s story unique. Students are walking a tightrope while writing their “perfect essay,” where they are encouraged to tailor their responses to showcase vulnerability while emphasizing growth and avoid discussing failure without writing about how they overcame it. This balance is already stifling their expression, and now having to showcase a polished self through this video platform will compromise campus culture, which values genuine dialogue over one curated to perfection.
