Jackson Jambalaya

“It has been shown that standardized tests reinforce the socio-economic achievement gap because the tests often reflect differences caused by educational discrimination at the secondary level,”

That must be liberal code for "our public schools still suck".

“Millsaps is committed to providing a rigorous residential liberal arts experience to all students, and our move to test optional reinforces this mission.” Until we decide we're being too rigorous, causing too much "educational discrimination" and flunking out too many students who shouldn't really be here anyway. At that point, we'll just give everyone a trophy and send them out to the work force.

It's fair to be skeptical of the effect on academic quality, but Millsaps is really just following the crowd on this. The whole Ivy League and most other selective private schools have done it already. https://www.ivywise.com/blog/colleges-going-test-optional-for-2020-21-admissions-cycle/

A true Stuart Smalley participation "university"....

"educational discrimination" WTF ?! I thought a mind was a terrible thing to waste..?

Covid will afford the left to do all sorts of things they've been wanting to do for decades. This is one. Always amazed me how the smartest kids in class were the ones making 30 plus on the ACT. My nephew was a straight A student and made a 35 on the test. Just a coincidence.

Just totally eliminate the class of 20/21 altogether at all levels and try again next spring. Same with any/all sports in educational institutes.

As long as the same rules apply to white men, then it is okay. Problem is white males don't have a future in America besides subsistance as a neutered beast of burden.

In the future, every office will have that one terrified white guy who does all the work while the women and POCs snapbook and facechat all day just waiting to perceive a microagression that they can report.

Still required at my alma mater, a large university in northwest Indiana.

The fake ADD diagnosis in order to take untimed crowd is not going to like this trend. This is usually the same person that hold their kids back in order to gain a advantage.

I doubt Millsaps will survive this economic depression. It was on shaky ground before Covid-19 hit. I hope I’m wrong because it is an asset to our city,

The ACT is useless. If I can drink until dawn and then sober up at a truck stop and then take and score 24 on the ACT it's just not much of an indicator of academic intelligence.

Millsaps has been losing the battle to the big 3 school's honors colleges for years. How it will survive will depend a great deal on moves like this (many more will be necessary).

Translation:

Can't pass a standardized admissions test? NO PROBLEM!
Aren't really suited for college? NO PROBLEM!
Can't afford to pay or get a loan for tuition and fees? BIG PROBLEM!

PS:

And in keeping with the recent spate of name-changes around the state and country to better reflect each school's role in modern education, Millsaps will change its mascot to...


"THE FIGHTING INSOLVENCIES"

The classes of '20 and '21 will either have asterisks next to their transcripts or all so-called institutions of higher learning will have to declare all objective standards semi-obsolete. If they do the latter at least they can hold on to some enrollment.

Millsaps needs to change its name to be true to this uber liberal mission they now uphold. Spoiler alert- he was in the Confederate Army. How they can keep his name is just beyond me.

Even prior to the COVID, Millsaps had a severely falling enrollment. This is less about COVID or taking a stand for inclusion than it is about surviving. To sum it up: they need warm bodies I.E. students who will pay or go into student loan debt to be there. They are hanging on by
their fingernails.

Nationwide, university enrollment is predicted to decline 15% this fall due to Covid. Student nor their parents want to pay full fare for an internet degree. Lots of gap years will take place.

Over priced private colleges will get the short end of the stick. All colleges are scrambling to draw as many students as possible no matter how qualified.

Hopefully they still require a high school diploma ?

@2:05

Preach! It is all about keeping the money coming in. Although, I am of the opinion that the ACT and SAT are pretty useless overall.

None of these instruments has any utility. I learned that word at Missipi State.

I have a plan to save Millsaps and solve a major problem facing the US. All they need to do is put a vending machine out in front of the admin building. Put in $60,000 in change (NO BILLS!), press the button with the number corresponding to your degree selection, the spiral thing turns, and you get your Millsaps degree from the compartment at the bottom. Based on the number of celebs that got busted trying to buy their brats into colleges, this could be a real boon for Millsaps. Plus the celebs get the warm-and-fuzzy SJW cocktail party brag about their kids getting a degree from an "HBC" in the deep south. Oh wait, no, not THAT "HBC"..."Hysterical Broke College," but there's no law saying they have to confess that part.

I didn't realize we had so many ACT fans out there. Would you also be willing to stake your life on a lie-detector test? What about judge someone by using an IQ test? At the end of the day, all of these standardized tests are made-up milestones that don't matter very much.

You do realize colleges and universities existed long before the ACT, right??

I went to Millsaps, along with Johnny Carson, Tate Reeves, Eudora Welty to name a few. I never thought that a Millsaps degree would ever pay off until I interviewed for a higher position all the way in Chicago. Turns out one of the interviewers had a huge Millsaps connection and it ended up being a plus in my favor. Can't ever say the same for Ole Miss, which is also on my resume still waiting to be noticed.

It is not “lowering standards.” Try to sign up for the ACT right now. My child & I have tried to sign up for the last 2 days. Registration has been closed for weeks, and when they reopened it yesterday the website crashed. ACT will not answer the phone or emails. They are grossly incompetent, and they should be investigated and shut down. They should have NO part in determining a young adult’s future, especially scholarships! Go look at the comments on their Facebook pages ACT, inc & ACT student. Lots of frustrated people.

11:16 very true!

Change the name of that College immediately !!!!!!

I'm in my safe space for a few hours until my mother can help me calm down.

She's making some hot soup for me as I type.

Anyway, I had heard rumors . . . but I just discovered Millsaps really was founded by an old White man than achieved the rank of Major in the Confederate Army .

ACT scores be damned. the name of this college must be changed !

I've posted several of the, er, humorous comments above and in response to the Millsaps grad who commented, I'll happily agree that Millsaps was once a fine school and provided a respectable and respected education. Rotary dial phones were once the latest and greatest in communication tools, too (and coincidentally, Millsaps and the rotary dial both became obsolete about the same time...). But what Millsaps was and what it is now are like comparing that rotary phone to the latest top-of-the-line 5G superphones. Yes, it is sad, but Millsaps' administration and to some extent its alums allowed it to happen.

As a life time Methodist, I quit supporting Millsaps financially. Their liberal faculty is far too left for me. The professor who spray painted the anti Trump comments was my breaking point.

Louisiana just let all law grads who applied for the bar to pass the bar.

No bar exam

Shit is weird

I am a Millsaps mba graduate. I met a very high level
Employee several years ago (in a bar). I gave him my business card and asked him to put on the list asking for contributions. He apparently did not do it. I ran into him again a year or so later. I asked him again to put me on the mailing list for contributions, and once again he apparently did not do it. There is an EXCELLENT opportunity for some young aggressive person to pursue a job doing this. I was always taught in the sales business that if you don,t ask for the order, you will not get it.

3:37~ That is simply not true. Our daughter took it last weekend. No problems. So stop telling lies.

As far as Millsaps goes, their enrollment is cratering. It’s an expensive school with very little up side. It’s sort of like a JA 2.1. Very average education like what you can pay at any other state school in MS. If you want to get a truly top-notch education you have to go out of state.

I’m a grad of two public universities in MS. While the education I received was adequate, it didn’t prepare me for my career goals. Yes, it was inexpensive, but if money wasn’t an issue, I would have been much better served out of state.

Look at national rankings of universities across the nation. OM, MSU,USM all tank really, really low, and it’s not surprising.

I have a young man who has been working for me part time at ranch and construction labor while he was attending a local junior college. He just graduated with some type of degree in computers. He went for a job interview in that field and was given a rather simple test, simple even in his own judgement. He admitted that he failed it flat out and was, therefore, not even considered for the job. Higer education for the masses is becoming a complete joke. I'm teaching him to run a couple of pieces of construction equipment as part of his work so he can get a full time job. Fake education helps no one but the grossly overpaid administration of these schools.

College is a Business...Has been a Lucrative Business for years. Many "Students" get paid (Refund of excess Financial Aid each Semester, even Summer) just to Apply & WILL get accepted. They will not be failed out. It's gotten worse than Public School Head Count day, when the State Department of Education counters came to determine enrollment & how much money the System was going to get...based on Head Counts.

Can't pass the ACT, no problem... THE COLLEGE will give you a test in place of the ACT.

Here is what some Colleges use...

The ACCUPLACER test is an entrance/placement exam administered to prospective students by

"Insert College Name"

Counseling Center. The ACCUPLACER test evaluates students' abilities in reading, writing and math. Results are used to place students in academic or career-technical programs to maximize success.

ACCUPLACER Test Students over 21 can take either the ACT or the ACCUPLACER test to satisfy the entrance exam requirement. Students under 21 who have already taken the ACT, but are not satisfied with their scores, can take the ACCUPLACER test instead of re-taking the ACT.

And, if you want to prepare by trying some sample questions, visit this link: ACCUPLACER practice.

" It’s sort of like a JA 2.1. Very average education"

So true but yet so funny !

kind of like that episode of the Andy Griffith show when Goober grew a beard and became an overnight scholar.

Many of the Millsaps undergrads (that stayed drunk at CS's) had that same mindset.

Inez was never impressed with those clowns.

But that's a different conversation.

Millsaps is a great school.

It’s expensive for sure.

My whole family (except a few Ivy League people) went to Millsaps.

Doctors and lawyers and some teachers.

It has a terrible PR department and it does suffer From
Bad financial decisions over the last 20 plus years.

It probably needs to merge with another school to survive as it’s endowment is small.

7:45, last weekend wasn’t a test date, so whatever. Also, google ACT news & see who is lying.

Read: We broke. Y'all come on. We'll leave the light on. Please.

I think we'll soon see a merger with Belhaven and Millsaps.

Yeah, right. The uber liberal Methodist college merges with the uber conservative Presbyterian college. That would be fun to watch.

For the last ten years, the state has been functionally, yet quietly merging the community college system with the K-12. Call it 13th and 14th grade. They are cross-funding and thousands of high-schoolers are coming to college already being given credit for their English/Algebra classes in high school. Total scam.

9:37~ Saturday, July the 18th. Yes it was a yeast date. Dropped my daughter off and hundreds of kids took it. It was easy to sign up and tak r it. So saying you can’t access the test is a lie.

millsaps farmed out it’s education program to william carey last year...expect millsaps will merge with carey.

"The ACT is useless. If I can drink until dawn and then sober up at a truck stop and then take and score 24 on the ACT it's just not much of an indicator of academic intelligence."

Good Lord, we were at the same party.

I don't remember much except stumbling into a Belhaven classroom to take the ACT.

My score was still high enough to be accepted in some prestigious academic universities.

But I decided on one of the SEC public schools.
(Better football and prettier girls).

No regrets whatsoever !
Everything worked out fine.

Yes, the days of the expensive, small, private liberal arts schools are probably over. I will always look back on my years at Millsaps as golden ones. I was taught to think critically, enjoyed the friendship as well as the tutelage of my major professors, and am sad that future generations will not know this college community as it was, in brighter days, *Sic transit gloria mundi*...

Mississippi's universities have become resorts. Funds meant for education have and continue to be spent on providing a grand "experience" for students at schools that aspire to providing a mediocre education at best.