Models to Predict Student Success
How to pick students for the school by using models to predict success?
Directions: Use the attached documents! No fluff rule: Please do NOT define terms or write an intro, conclusion, or background. Quoting directly from readings is almost always a bad idea. DO make sure to do the readings thoroughly including the optional ones for that topic. Knowledge cannot be faked. Start quickly and end abruptly. For these short write-ups, introductions, background, and conclusions are almost entirely unnecessary. Even worse, they take away space that is much better used in other ways. Jump right in. Choose specific over abstract. Precision is good. It’s good for communication, and it’s good for sharpening thinking. For this write up, please make sure to incorporate concepts from the readings, not just your intuition! USE THE FILES ATTACHED TO WRITE THE RESPONSE.
Prompt: Imagine that you are running the University Admissions Office. A statistics professor has suggested that you could do a better job of picking students for the school if the admissions office used models to predict success and then just admit the students that score highest. Note: Humans can still be used to numerically code subjective judgments.
1. What do you think of this plan? What might models do better than expert admissions officers?
2. What problems do you anticipate? How would you solve them?
3. How can we ensure that the model maintains what makes the university unique?
Hint 1: Specify what measures of success the model is trying to predict for applicants. That is, what metric is the model trying to maximize.
Hint 2: Even if you are against using models, you still must base your write-up on this week’s readings (and not just discuss your own opinions)!
_kleinberg_ludwig_mullainathan_2016_hbr_a_guide_to_solving_social_problems_with_machine_learning hbr_2014_the_problem_with_using_personality_tests_for_hiring dawes_corrigan_1974_pb_linear_models_in_decision_making dawes_1979_ap_the_robust_beauty_of_improper_linear_models_in_decision_making dana_2017_nyt___the_utter_uselessness_of_job_interviews
Answer preview to Models to Predict Student Success
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