Baylor Rewards Freshmen Who Retake SAT

College Search & Selection
21

<p>
[quote]
So USNWR should shake up the rankings every year by changing the parameters...keep everyone on their toes. One year 100% peer assessment, the next 100% average SAT scores. It's their magazine, why do the rules have to remain static?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>USNWR is going to start losing credibility fast if they start being so capricious like that. However, I would agree that they should be able to change weightings or categories; just not say what they're doing. If colleges don't know what weighting USNWR gives to SAT scores, acceptance rates, yield rates, etc., you wouldn't see stupid stunts like this or employment of Tufts syndrome, large wait-lists, large reliance on ED, etc and USNWR would be able to be more accurate with what they produced because colleges wouldn't be able to game the system.</p>

<p>
[quote]
Ummm...</p>

<p>In theory? No
In actuality? Very no

[/quote]
</p>

<p>At some point, you're going to hit diminshing returns. I would think being out of practice for that type of test would override one 'extra year of academic maturity'. Generally, GRE verbal scores are lower than SAT verbal scores as you forget many of the vocab words.</p>

22

<p>Even without knowing the weights, institutions can attempt to make changes that will be rewarded by USNews' scheme. The factors are not just weights, but also the college's relative standing on the measures (looking at where they are, and how other schools are distributed) and the plausibility of changing one's score (on some items, they just can't do much). USNews may shift weights which will then make some strategies more or less meaningful, of course, but they're probably not going to deviate those weights too wildly (as has been pointed out already).</p>