<p>Smart parents do not necessarily have smart children. The correlation between income and SAT score is because richer parents can afford more educational opportunities for their children. They may live in a better school district or send their kids to private school. When it comes time for the SATs they can afford to pay for books and tutors. If the kid still doesn’t get a score they wanted, they can not only afford to pay for a retake, but they also have greater incentives to do so. If you know that you can easily pay for any school your kid gets into regardless of whether or not they provide any aid or scholarships, it is worth it to continuously try to bump up your kid’s score since it directly leads to more opportunities. If you have a lower income, regardless of your score, you are relying on applying to some school which will meet your financial needs, in which case, continuing to toss money at the college board may not be cost effective. </p>
<p>There were plenty of private colleges that I never applied to who sent me offers for big scholarships simply because higher admitted SAT scores bumps their rankings up. (another element of the industry that I feel causes problems.) I ignored everyone one of them because state schools still ended up being the more economical options. I maybe could have thrown away another $70 to try to squeeze some more money out of these schools, but why should I? Unless I’m going to an Ivy (which are all need blind anyway) what do I gain from going to some outrageously expensive private college with the dumb children of rich people who bought 800s for their kids on the SATs?</p>
<p>Your comment is so bad I am never going to post on this website again.</p>
<p>I have a hunch that Darth got a poor SAT score / had a few retakes and now is ranting about his unfortunate experiences, by channeling his anger at the SAT.</p>
<p>Put yourself in the perspective of a college admission officer at Brown. Almost every application is above a 3.7 Unweighted, and that is WITH a ton of AP and Honors, ECs, blah blah…with the except of a few (like one guy won a gold medal at the International Math Olympiad), all of them look almost the same. However, SAT is a aptitude test, and when colleges see that students with similar apps have vastly different SAT scores…say one has a 2300 on one try and another has a 2100 with 3 tries superscored…it might say something about the person’s verbal and reasoning abilities, and doing things right in a short time.</p>
<p>Also one more thing, Collegeboard is essentially a business. How CAN they not make a load of $$, even as a ““nonprofit organization”” with all the prep books they sell alone? Whichever people runs collegeboard are very smart, because even if they know that the SAT might be a fraud, they’re milking the test for all its worth, until the SAT gets taken down, replaced by the rising ACT, whatever. </p>
<p>In any case, Collegeboard is very good at making (or leeching, if you like to call it) money and profiting from students, and we can’t blame them for that. I mean after all, almost every company is out to make some decent cash and I’m sure Collegeboard is no exception.</p>
<p>Also I remember one time…there was this girl in my SAT prep class and she talked about how the SAT was bad, and how colleges should accept everyone for who they are, because they are nice and friendly. Frankly, it was the biggest BS I’ve heard for a while.</p>
<p>If she had her wish, then some of the laziest people would go to mingle with hard-working, and motivated people in prestigious colleges…which would be unfair to the latter, since the hard-workers would not be able to have an deserved advantage over those who procrastinated all four years.</p>
<p>Not surprisingly, it was no coincidence that she was in the bottom 50% in class rankings and couldn’t pass a 2000 on the practice SATs despite numerous SAT prep courses.</p>
<p>Tough luck…the SAT, like GPA and ECs, is just another method of separating the rejects, and the accepteds. It’s just a cold harsh truth we have to realize and work to accomplish, not fight against, because there’s no point. I mean, almost everyone in my HS HATES standardized tests, but they study for it very hard because they know they have no choice and there are so many pros to doing well on the SAT/ACT/SAT 2s/APs, etc.</p>
<p>And if you try to fight against the established-system-that-wont-go-away-any-time-soon, AKA the CollegeBoard and its SAT, all the more power to you. Just remember that for every person who renounces the SAT, there are thousands more hungry to do well on the SAT, whether they like it or not, and increase the chances of getting into their dream colleges and scholarships.</p>