<p>SAT scores are a datapoint. One datapoint for a small group of companies in particular industries.</p>
<p>Nobody is going to get hired based on the name of their college or their major. Nobody is getting hired based on their GPA. Nobody gets hired because of a leadership role in an EC. Nobody gets hired because they were a Rhodes finalist. Nobody is getting hired solely due to their personality (except for maybe a reality show contestant). And nobody is getting hired based on their writing skills (solely) or their skill at Matlab or doing DCF analysis or because they wrote a senior thesis which won the university prize that year.</p>
<p>But all of these things are factors. Some weigh more heavily for certain types of companies and positions within those companies and some less. In recruiting we often talk about “runway”. When we hire a 50 year old there is plenty of runway- 28 years worth of adulthood with professional accomplishments and people managed and mentored and businesses that he or she improved and new initiatives that he or she launched.</p>
<p>There is no runway for a new grad. So you are stuck evaluating what there is, and for many companies, that means assessing academics, leadership, work experience, etc. So you take the datapoints that you have and try to evaluate them as best you can.</p>
<p>If I’m hiring for a sales leadership program at a big company, I’ll look for evidence of strong peer influencing skills since that what the job entails. Frat president is nice. Captain of a sports team is nice. But there are lots of successful people in sales who are introverts- and so there are other activities and accomplishments which speak to a person’s potential in sales. And someone who is naturally reserved and introverted who has pushed themselves into leadership roles or into group activities despite their own inclinations and been successful doing that- wow. That’s a nice story to tell for a sales leadership program.</p>
<p>If I’m hiring someone for an entry level position in media relations, I need someone with strong writing skills. But I’ve hired PhD’s in English who were abysmal. So you need lots more than just strong writing to be successful in that function- you need tenacity and you need speed and the ability to do 40 things well without getting bogged down in the weeds and a whole host of things.</p>
<p>SAT scores are evidence of one particular type of skill. They tell me that compared to a national norm, this was a kid at age 17 who was tippy top, above average, average, below average on a particular test compared to everyone else who took the test. I can’t compare a 3.3 GPA from Cornell to a 4.0 at U Conn, especially if the kid from Cornell majored in civil engineering and the kid at U Conn majored in leisure studies. But I’ll bet you dinner that if that kid from U Conn got a 750 math SAT, despite the lack of rigor in some of his or her courses, I will not have to teach that kid how to calculate percentages or read a bar chart on day one of his training program. And if that kid is interested in one of my training programs which do require a reasonable mathematical background, I will notice that he took the Calc sequence that econ majors take, and placed out of the math sequence that leisure studies majors take. I will not do a deep dive on every single leisure studies major (we get thousands of resumes a week) but this one will get read in most cases.</p>
<p>That’s all it is folks. A datapoint, not a nefarious and elitist scheme to screw over hard working, honest Americans,</p>