THE LAST WORD 07-29-15

THE LAST WORD

George Washington University just became the largest top-ranking private school to drop standardized tests scores as an admissions requirement. The SAT has been used as a way to judge academic ability since the early 20th century, but as Mic’s Zeeshan Aleem writes, it is becoming increasingly apparent that there are significant downsides to using standardized test scores as a criteria for admission. Since the scores tend to correlate with household income, colleges may be unconsciously weeding out certain candidates and creating a major lack of diversity. Perhaps other schools should follow GWU’s example. Imagine what could happen if we looked at academic performance metrics that aren’t influenced by a student’s ability to afford an SAT prep class.