I am not a huge fan of the SAT for many reasons. The list runs so long that I could write a book (but I won’t as many have already been written). My list goes something like this:
1. The SAT is not a fair measure of achievement. Unlike the ACT, the SAT does not measure what a student has learned in high school.
2. Wealthy families spend thousands to coach their students how to take the SAT (although to be fair, a recent study reported that the average improvement is only 30 points), making the SAT a “class conscious” test. Students from struggling or poor families are at a disadvantage with the SAT (the ACT is less so only because it measures what a student learned in high school…the wealthy do ACT tutoring as well, but not nearly as much.)
3. The SAT is used by colleges and universities to compete for rankings (as is the ACT, but much less so), and to some colleges and universities, those US News and World Report rankings are the top of the mountain. In my view, the rankings (which are inflated, misreported, and sometimes downright untrue) are the epitome of what is wrong in college admissions.
These issues were discussed in much more detail in a recent Washington Post article. I have to give the Post a nod on allowing it to be printed since they own Kaplan…the most lucrative SAT coaching program. The link is
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/class-struggle/2009/07/what_the_sat-optional_colleges.html
In this article you will learn that many colleges who are test optional use the scores that are submitted (and if your scores are high, you submit them) and report this inflated score average for use in the rankings game. So much for integrity and looking at the whole student. There are exceptions though. Sarah Lawrence College has done away completely with scores, and has paid the price: from 47th on the list to expulsion from the list. That is correct…the US News will not even put a college on their list if they do not accept SAT scores.
As the students and parents I work with know, I look for schools that are the right fit for my students regardless of the US News and World Report Rankings. Knowing that the information submitted to the magazine is often highly suspect, I never consider those rankings in my college searches. (And neither should YOU!)
