1460+ (SAT) or 33+ (ACT) and you're in at U of Austin

The University of Austin doesn't care about your high school grades or extracurriculars or the essay your chatbot worked so hard on. It doesn't want to know what groups you "identify" with. Under the new "merit-based admissions" policy, students who score 1460+ on the SAT, 33+ on the ACT, or 105+ on the Classical Learning Test -- the 98th percentile -- will be admitted automatically to the fledgling university.

Students with lower scores will "be evaluated on your test scores, AP/IB results, and three verifiable achievements, each described in a single sentence," says the announcement on X.

All students will qualify for a four-year, full-tuition scholarship.

"Admissions at elite colleges now come down to who you know, your identity group, or how well you play the game," proclaims the university. "This system rewards manipulation, not merit. It selects for conformity, not character."

The University of Austin hopes to create a "pluralistic community" devoted to"argument and inquiry," I wrote in Education Next last year. President Pano Kanelos, who used to run the Great Books-focused St. John's College in Maryland, told me he doesn’t want to run an “anti-woke” university or establish a haven for conservatives or libertarians or Christians or . . . well, anyone.

The inaugural class of 92 students is politically diverse, students told Sixty Minutes. "I've met people of every political persuasion here from, like, far-left Democrats who are for Bernie Sanders or to the left of that even, to people who would make Donald Trump look like a liberal," student Jacob Hornstein said.

Two-thirds of students are male, and about half from Texas. They averaged in the 92nd percentile on the SAT and ACT, about a 1380 or 30.

The next class will have 200 students, if the original plan is followed. I wonder how many very high scorers will decide to apply. Going to a new university -- it won't be accredited until the first class graduates -- requires courage.

At elite universities, admissions rates are down to single digits, reports Christopher Rim in Forbes. Schools that used to be "safety schools" are now rejecting most applicants, says college consultant Rachel Rubin.

MIT "notes that accepted students have interests in “cosmology and cosplay, quantum and quilting, agriculture and archery.” Cornell, likewise, highlighted admitted applicants whose interests braided together cryptography and disaster relief runs, air pollution research and Habitat for Humanity volunteer work, Crohn’s Disease research and efforts to save local pollinators."

At some elite schools, black enrollment is down due to the Supreme Court's affirmative action decision, writes Rim. Many are admitting more first-generation students in hopes that "increasing socioeconomic diversity will lead to greater diversity overall."

At not-so-selective state universities, the trend is to offer admission to students who haven't applied, based on their grades, reports the Washington Post. But grade inflation has made that a risky proposition.