“Leave your G.P.A., your SATs, your recommendations at home,” said Anant Agarwal, the chief executive of edX. “If you have the will to learn, just bring your Internet connection and yourself, and you can get a year of college credit.”
It would be nice if MIT professor Agarwal could promote the initiative without being misleading. GPAs and SAT scores are (imperfectly) predictive of whether someone can do college level work.
While it is true that GPAs and SAT scores are predictive of college success, they may not be the only predictors of success in college - or in life. The program does not seem to be marketed to the traditional student, but rather as an outreach to individuals who might not have otherwise had the opportunity to take college courses (specifically the baristas mentioned in an article upthread), and to those who may not have taken an SAT exam, etc.
Additionally the Global Freshman Academy may provide a great opportunity for a young gifted student to access higher level curriculum. Like all tools, this one can be used appropriately or inappropriately.
... Agarwal's institution should move to lottery admissions.
When physical space for a class is not a concern therefore class sizes can be larger, there may be no need for a lottery.
This thread reminds me a bit of the recent thread
The University of Everywhere. The traditional high-school age students who choose the Global Freshman Academy may be students who believe they would prefer this format to large in-person lecture hall courses, experienced by many college Freshmen. Unlike traditional college, in which tuition contracts are signed in advance, if students do not like the Global Freshman Academy experience, they do *not* pay tuition.
