College Admissions History: How Merit-Based Testing Evolved Into Holistic Evaluations

What if the college admissions system that's supposed to find the "best" students is actually tearing society apart? Casey explores how American universities went from simple Latin and Greek exams to today's mysterious "holistic" evaluations that nobody really understands. On Pattern Break, we trace the wild evolution from Harvard's 1905 entrance exams to the complex system we have now. You'll discover how "character" evaluations started as a way to limit Jewish enrollment in the 1920s, learn why SAT scores alone would make Harvard's freshman class 60% Asian American (but actual enrollment is way different), and understand the scary connection between pure merit...