arctic

(a rant/comparison of the U.A. Entrance Exam with medical admissions, from a first-time medicine applicant)

Alright, we’ve all heard of how horribly biased the exam is against Quirks that only influence humans or living being. Rescue points? Hidden; and the sight of those robots is more than enough to demoralise a kid who’s been working months for the practical exam only to find that their Quirk won’t even affect their opponents. Your only other option is... *checks notes* competing in a series of trials with kids who have had extra training with their quirks, or nepotism. I agree that it’s unfair! But quite frankly, I think those particular issues have been done to the death.

My issue is with what the Entrance Exam lacks - particularly, some way of, I don’t know, testing the kids’ morals? These kids are going to be starting on a career that’s an amalgamation of a celebrity, a police officer, a healthcare professional and a firefighter, and there isn’t a way of checking if any of them might be homocidal?? And this is the top hero school in the country! Like, even my secondary school admissions had interviews - for 12 year olds. Surely 15 year olds can handle them, let alone those trying to get into U.A..

Now, you might argue; but being a doctor requires more academic rigour! It requires intensive study and practical skill, along with excellent bedside manner and social skills! That’s true. In the UK (which is arguably one of the countries in the Anglosphere where it’s relatively ‘easy’ to get into medicine), medical admissions typically require straight As, high scores in 1/2 entrance exams, and beating others at either a panel interview or at an MMI (multiple mini interview) just to get an offer. But, I’d argue that being a hero requires skills that are almost, if not equivalent, with these.

You can’t tell me that heroes don’t need to be aware of the laws governing what actions they can or cannot do. The written exams that the kids take at the end of each year is evidence that they do need some theoretical hero-related knowledge to graduate - plus, they need to come out the other end being able to (to some extent) manipulate the media, and reassure civilians, talk villains down, control their Quirk and use it to subdue villains and rescue/evacuate people, etcetera, etcetera.

In my mind, the admissions should be nearly as complicated as medical admissions - where they ascertain your motivations, your circumstances, your critical thinking ability and your social skills over both entrance exams and interviews before even letting you onto the course. This ensures that they’re not wasting resources on someone who may drop out after the first year, and tests the teenagers’ suitability for the profession.

Sure, maybe the written entrance exam contains some version of the CASPer* and/or the BMAT**, but if so, how did someone like Bakugou (who, early on, is unashamedly tunnel-visioned on getting #1, fuck everyone else) get in? How did, despite how much I love her, Uraraka (who wants to join a profession that must have been known for its high mortality rate - for the $$$) get in?

Their Quirks are good, definitely, but did they know what they were getting themselves into? Did they know what the role truly encompassed, or were they blinded by the fame, the rankings, the money? Did they know - at least the basics - of the emotional and mental toll that came with being a hero? Did they know the kind of people they might encounter?

Quite frankly, if U.A. didn’t at least check for this, they’re doing both their potential students and the general population a great disservice - which, seeing that Endeavor is a product of U.A., seems to be the case.

It should not be that easy to embark on a career as publicised and as dangerous as being a hero is, and yet that is how it appears to be. Doctors have to have the right motivation because if you hate people, no matter how knowledgable and capable you are, your patients are going to have an all around horrible time - and that ‘only’ leads to higher mortality if people are reluctant to visit the hospital. In BNHA? A bad encounter, or several bad encounters, with heroes has the potential to create villains. Surely, in that case, hero potentials should be vetted more thoroughly?

I’m a fan of this show and I’ve read hundreds of thousands, if not millions, words worth of BNHA fanfiction, but when I turn off my suspension-of-disbelief, my day is instantly ruined (that might be a slight exaggeration, I get that it’s for plot convenience - but still; where are the fucking restrictions?).

(*CASPer: “[The Computer-Based Assessment for Sampling Personal Characteristics] [...] asks what you would do in a tough situation, and more importantly, why. This helps determine behavioral tendencies of applicants pursuing people-centered professions.”