{"id":455,"date":"2015-02-23T21:12:49","date_gmt":"2015-02-24T02:12:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig210\/?p=455"},"modified":"2015-02-23T21:20:50","modified_gmt":"2015-02-24T02:20:50","slug":"ill-effects-of-college-scattergrams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig210\/2015\/02\/23\/ill-effects-of-college-scattergrams\/","title":{"rendered":"Ill Effects of College Scattergrams"},"content":{"rendered":"

When looking at a map, Mark Monmonier encourages users to be critical of the subjective influences that have shaped it, emphasizing the undue respect maps receive as compared to other data visualizations. Specifically, Monmonier states that “maps, like numbers, are often arcane images accorded undue respect and credibility,” reflecting his frustration with individuals’ lack of skepticism (Monmonier 3). Well, Monmonier may have been disappointed with my habit of obsessing over\u00a0college scattergrams during my junior and senior\u00a0years of high school.<\/p>\n

\"https:\/\/www.cappex.com\/page\/collegeCenter\/scattergramStandAlone.jsp;jsessionid=EC6AE4ABF835738BEA2A1BC9B2F08D94.tomcat-main01?id=198385&collegeID=198385&collegeName=Davidson%20College&isForProfitCollege=false\"<\/a><\/p>\n

For those who do not know, college scattergrams “are collected data points graphed to show the GPA and test scores of applicants to the college, indicating their accepted pool of students in a visual form” (McNamara). To be honest, I used to scour\u00a0through these scattergrams for hours, switching\u00a0from college to college on sites like Cappex\u00a0<\/a>, ultimately affecting my decision to apply to certain schools based on the probability that I would be accepted. I fell prey to those\u00a0who designed these scattergrams, who\u00a0stripped me of my identity beyond my GPA and test scores. Similarly, scattergrams do not capture the importance of other factors that determine college acceptance, such as extracurriculars, legacy status, college essay, teacher recommendations, etc.. Monmonier would also criticize how rejections are seen as\u00a0red dots, while acceptances are seen as green, which “mislead the map viewer” into thinking they are an ‘other’ or not worthy enough to be a part of the green dots (Monmonier 3). Therefore, this “visual reduction” of a student negatively impacts their self worth by making it seem as though test scores and GPA are the most prized attributes colleges focus on (Manovich 38). In analyzing data visualizations, we should be mindful of how they only offer\u00a0a limited and\u00a0biased view of the bigger picture.<\/p>\n

Additional Sources Used:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.cappex.com\/page\/collegeCenter\/scattergramStandAlone.jsp;jsessionid=EC6AE4ABF835738BEA2A1BC9B2F08D94.tomcat-main01?id=198385&collegeID=198385&collegeName=Davidson%20College&isForProfitCollege=false<\/p>\n

http:\/\/threeforfreecollege.com\/2013\/09\/20\/the-truth-about-gpa-test-scores-and-scattergrams\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When looking at a map, Mark Monmonier encourages users to be critical of the subjective influences that have shaped it, emphasizing the undue respect maps receive as compared to other data visualizations. Specifically, Monmonier states that “maps, like numbers, are often arcane images accorded undue respect and credibility,” reflecting his frustration with individuals’ lack of … Continue reading Ill Effects of College Scattergrams<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","hentry","category-group-5","category-readers","post_format-post-format-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig210\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig210\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig210\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig210\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig210\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=455"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig210\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":462,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig210\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455\/revisions\/462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig210\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig210\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig210\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}