I am filling out an online recommendation form for a student who is applying to graduate school at Berkeley. One of the questions is: “Rate the applicant in comparison to others you have known in a similar capacity.” My choices are:
(This is an actual screen capture from the actual form.)
Unless I select one of the options, I am unable to submit the form.
I find myself at a loss for snarky words. What ought to have been the title of this post?
Title should have been “None of the above”.
Rate This Post
Frankly, I can’t decide if it’s the best this year or the best ever.
Candide Applies for College
Eh. I surmise that Berkley wants to impose a budget constraint on profs writing letters of recommendation. Unless you can say that a candidate was at least the best student you had that year, they don’t want to hear from you about that candidate.
This strikes me as a reasonable effort to screen applicants and a reasonable effort to control the supply of recommendations, thereby limiting “recommendation inflation.” Where’s the beef?
Lake Wobegon University–all our applicants are the best.
I think it doesn’t so much limit praise inflation as codify it. It seems that everyone describes their students as outstanding, such that “good” is code for “terrible”. This question is a tacit acknowledgment of the fiction of recommendation letters.
@nobody.really: Might be reasonable but this would suck for someone in the same class as (insert fields medalist/nobel laurette here).
I’ll go with “None of the Above.” Now that I’ve got that out of the way, tell us how you answered this, dammit. The suspense is killing me!
“The Cult of Self-Esteem Run Amok”?
You all get trophies AND a blue ribbon! Hooray!
Using part of Mark Draughn’s answer, how about: “How would you answer this?”
“Inflation is sometimes not a monetary phenomenon”
norm: I like this one!
norm’s might be best. I also like “None of the Above”.
My suggestion: “Worst Question Ever”.
Perhaps the survey is making a larger point about the “tragedy” of too much (false) choice in our free market society. Or maybe their motto is “Berkeley, where only the Best apply”.
I’m not persuaded. If Berkley merely required the recommender to pick between “Super Duper” and “Boffo,” I’d agree. But the statement “best” is not merely a superlative; the recommender can identify only one candidate per label: “Best, ” “Best in 10 Years,” “Best in 5 Years,” and “Best This Year.” Moreover, there seems to be a pretty clear hierarchy among these labels.
Arguably the problem with the Berkley system does not arise from Berkley’s system per se, but from the nature of letters of recommendation. The letters take the form of a free consulting service provided by a disinterested recommender to an admissions officer, colleague to colleague. But in practice, recommendations tend to be a form of advocacy for a specific candidate. Because the recommender has an agenda that is not necessarily consistent with the agenda of Berkley admissions office, we know that the recommender may not honor the intent of the restrictions implied by Berkley’s forms.
It can be hard to get people to honor both the letter and the spirit of your rules. I recall when a law was being drafted to assess a fine on a kind of pollution. The polluters asked to change the draft by imposing fines only on parties that polluted intentionally. But the drafter’s response suggested that the need to make a finding of intentional misconduct might not create the limitation the polluters were intending: “If you pollute, we’ll make you pay the fine. If you insist, we’ll impugn your character while we’re at it — but really, we’re only trying to impose a fine.”
Yup; that’s the nature of screening criteria generally.
Indeed, paler versions of this problem arise in a variety of circumstances. Can you compare two candidates based on class rank or curve-based grades if those candidates didn’t attend the same classes – or even the same school? Do you become less qualified simply because you attended school with prodigies, or become less qualified because you attended school with idiots? Indeed, probably the opposite is true. Yet people judge you on the extent to which you differ from your peers – for better and worse.
Ah, but Berkeley can now report they only admit the best. And, you can give the student the lowest rank possible with less fear they could sue you, since you did call them the “best this year.”
Having read a lot of questionnaires as part of IRB service, I am often amazed at the number of times the choices are not mutually exclusive and complete. One of my favoritea are those who force imagine a belief in economic freedom and social fredooms must be constrained in the left/right world where you embrace freedom in only one or semi-freedom in both.
Am I the Best or What?
All students are best, but some students are bester than others.
e.) Better than other applicants labeled “best”
f.) Almost better than I can imagine
g.) Better than I can imagine
h.) Better than Berkeley can imagine
What if you had a student last name of “Best”. Clearly he was Best ten years ago and will continue to be so for ten years in the future.
Unless he dies from awesomeness that is
“Because the recommender has an agenda that is not necessarily consistent with the agenda of Berkley admissions office, we know that the recommender may not honor the intent of the restrictions implied by Berkley’s forms.”
Or, in short: the questionnaire exists to align both the recommender’s, and the admission office’s goals.
I hope this was compiled by a person with a sense of humor, it cannot possible have been meant seriously. What happens if two of your students apply in the same year? It does not ask what they are best at, so you could honestly answer best (at being late) in 10 years, for example.
One of my profs had a nationwide reputation for honesty, so I asked him to write me a letter of recommendation for an internship. He said that he liked my classroom participation, and like me, but he couldn’t overlook the fact that I was perhaps the laziest student he’d ever had. Fortunately for me, his letter simply said, “I’ve had this young man in my classes for many years, and I can honestly say that you’d be lucky to get him to work for you.”
Too bad you could not choose, “Best of the best of the best, with honors.”
or…
e.) Best ever and for the next 10 years (projected)
f.) Best ever and for the next 25 years (projected)
g.) Best ever now and forever (projected)
h.) Best ever now and forever (guaranteed)
@ Tom
“Boy, Captain America over here! “Best of the best of the best, sir!” “With honors.” Yeah, he’s just really excited and he has no clue why we’re here.”
Games You Can’t Lose
Games I Can’t Win
Damn We’re Good
Superiority Complex
“Too Good for Berkeley”
That’s exactly how I responded when I found out they’d lost 20 pages of my application materials in the Sproul Hall takeover.
Hobson’s Choice
The selections are ordered from least flattering to most flattering, so you can answer as if you’re grading on a scale of 1 to 4. I assume they’ll understand.
Skew you.
or
The 1%?
“It was the best of times, it was the, well, best of times”…
“It’s better to be a kind of smart fish in a non-competitive pond”
Appalachian State tuition $ 1576. Improving your chance of getting into Berkeley by being ranked the best by an Appalachian State professor, “Priceless”.
No one could do a better job.
Hobson’s Choice – Straight Up With a Twist
Arthur Goldberger wrote a rec for me for the U of Wisconsin political science graduate program in the 1990s. He showed me the form and asked, “What in the world is this?” I grinned and said “Just circle “superior”.
The question was “Please evaluate the student’s native intelligence.”
Goldberger ignored my suggestion and blurted, “Evaluate native intelligence? Are they kidding? They’re going to get a letter about this.”
(I wasn’t accepted)
False Choice Fallacy
This post and especially the comments have hooked me on this website. I’m at work and literally laughing out loud at some of your great comments. Ken B, Neil, Andrew, Steve S, nobody.really, David Wallin, Tom, Eduardo, Bill, SheetWise, Gene Hayward, David, and especially Scott H. – you guys rock.
This thread is great – fun to read and with great wisdom too.
Title of Post:
A) “Being PC on my PC!” (Berkeley would like that – no one loses, there are only winners in this competition!)
B) “Darwin’s Choicest” (as opposed to one of my favorites, above, “Hobson’s Choice…..”)
C) “To know thyself is the ultimate form of aggression”