I would love to see the study you reference for Purdue in regards to SAT correlating to better success.
A little known fact about Purdue and one of the reasons (and maybe the main reason) why they are going back to requiring the SAT/ACT next year is that Kristina Wong Davis the Vice Provost for Enrollment Management at Purdue University sits on the board of AP College Board who runs the SAT. It is in her best interest to require the tests.
Exactly. I love love love that USC handpicks a special class every year. It says a lot about the heart of the university. My daughter is a sophomore, and my son applied EA this cycle. Both applied test optional. My daughter is doing exceptionally well among NMF in her cohort. She has amazing talents and personality as well as my son. She graduated HS 8/800, my son is 2/264. Not all that score almost perfectly have success in college or bring anything else to the university. It’s good to have a mix of students. USC is full of talent, creativity, and mostly happy kids. I’m glad my daughter can balance a social life and an academic life to achieve all of her goals at USC.
I don’t see how that is different for students working hard and staying focused to take 18 AP courses and 4 dual enrollment classes to boost their GPA.
“In the case of many kids, it’s the privilege and luxury of time to study, work ethic instilled by their parents, and laser sharp focus to study the school materials that helped them achieve good grades. I didn’t appreciate this until I started volunteering at my local library study group as a mentor for college applicants. I have mentored four so far and all had to take on responsibilities that leave them barely enough time to focus on school work. Responsibilities such as daily basketball games, online video game, tik tok creation, wind surfing… All these are essential to a balanced healthy lifestyle and no sacrifice should be made in order to gain an unfair advantage at school…like taking AP or participating in Science Olympiad. Those are bad for their mental health.”
Should we cancel GPA reporting too for everyone else ?
While we figure out how to increase parity with GPA, we can toss the thing we know is biased AND a lousy predictor of success.
GPA + Tests are good indicator. I am against eliminating SAT as in university of california. Adjusting the weights for test and extra curricular activities is fair.
We can never generalize for all. I can see someone argue high school GPA is not good indicator for some. Some did exceptionally well in high school Biology but not so in their high school PE, history, geography for example. But they excel at college when 70% of the courses are their major courses - biology. So we should toss the high school GPA too which is biased and a lousy predictor of college success. Right ?
Science/research tells us that 1) GPA is a reliable indicator of college success and 2) tests are not. Are there individual differences? Absolutely. But if we have to make generalizations, then let’s do it empirically.
Which science/research tells us tests are not ? Done by special interest group ? I am against generalization so that is why I am against a sweeping ban on SAT as in UC.
the scientific report I have seen says that tests PLUS GPA are the best predictor. better than GPA alone. I assume we are referencing the same study.
it’s naive to think by removing SAT we will help the poor and even the playing field. there would just be more weight on other things that are even more easily manipulated by the well-off (internships, essays, AP classes, fancy club sports like yachting and fencing…).
I say keep the tests mandatory and let the colleges decide how much weight they want to give to them.
Thank you.
I am not sure if GPA is a good indicator so many grade inflation in high schools. Even the Dean of Viterbi noted that they like to see AP scores because they have seen kids get A in the class but do very poorly on the AP exams- I inferred that was due to grade inflation.
Ah Legacy !
I only want one college… Univ of Michigan to consider legacy during admissions (I graduated from there). 
I am following this thread because my son has applied to USC, and we are looking forward to hearing about the first round of decisions that will come out on Friday. The thread has been a great resource for information and news relating to USC admissions for the Class of 2027, so I always check the thread when I see that there are updates.
Would it be possible to take the conversation about SAT, GPA, etc. to another thread?
Agreed. Apologies.
Interesting. I had no idea of that little known fact about the head of enrollment for Purdue!
On a related note, I found a MIT article describing their reasoning for reinstituting the SAT/ACT requirement. We are reinstating our SAT/ACT requirement for future admissions cycles | MIT Admissions
I agree that applicants are more than just a great test score and that creativity, personality and individual circumstances should also be part of the admissions process. To me, it feels like the test-optional approach could be misused by universities.
Lot of folks would make a case. What if student is just bad test taker.
Every kid is unique. But every school is unique. We do see Grade deflation, grade inflation.
No easy answer.
LOL…I assure you I didn’t use ChatGPT in my response, but it’s good to see other mentors out there who have a different perspective. I have also recruited two other parents into my B&G Club college coaching program and encourage others to look into their local chapters.
Will do. I totally understand as I am here too to get information to help support my current mentee. Good luck to your son!
Are acceptance packages sent out before or after the portal update?
My college roommate SUCKED at standardized tests. She graduated with a 4.0 and went on to law school.
My daughter was PHYSICALLY UNABLE to retake her SAT (she took it the first time without studying at all) bc she was ill in the mornings. If the test wasn’t during that time (kinda sucky for most anyway) she would have scored far better as she studied for months. How do you include that in an application?? you don’t bc schools would want to know what was going on, etc.
(She’s been accepted to Tulane et al. and will be awaiting several more.
nobody is saying the SAT should be the only thing colleges look at, just that it can still be a data point.
you think grades are objective and fair? what about when one bio teacher is school is notoriously difficult and another one is really easy? how does that factor in to GPA?
what if my kid failed his drivers test and can’t go to the fancy internship your’s had?
what if my kid can’t afford the essay tutor lots of other kids use but was fine with self-studying for the SAT and did well?
what if my kid is shy and doesn’t perfume well in classroom settings but aces standardized tests? why is performance anxiety only ok in one direction?
Anyway there should be a new thread for this. it doesn’t belong in this USC one. it’s been discussed before but I personally think it’s an important and interesting topic and a new thread is warranted.