<p>Just thought I would bring this "old", yet not tired, thread back up because the issue of the SAT and IQ - and Sternberg's research on the Rainbow Project - got quite a good work over and there are many links provided. </p>
<p>Another article link to back up keeping the SAT for many reasons already mentioned in the above posts: Harvard's dean, William Fitzsimmons argues that the SAT still serves the cause of fairness - "between grade inflation and the widely varying quality of high shools (including home schools) ... years of Harvard data show scores do predict performance..."</p>
<p>I find it interesting that the FAFSA folks are raising the bar on the type of coursework students take: AP and IB. Take higher level courses, do well on the exit exams and get more money. They are not giving more money to students who did well on the SAT. This will put more pressure on schools to offer the programs for all their students.</p>
<p>Overseas, You are right that the new Academic Competitiveness Grants and other FAFSA related grants are aimed to target high achievers with strong AP and IB standing. Other grant programs, like that adopted in Florida for community college grants, use SAT scores to target the middle to lower spectrum of students. SAT scores are also used to award Calgrants. </p>
<p>small nit: the test scores are ONLY used for home-schooled Cal Grant applicants in lieu of a HS gpa. While home schoolers maybe growing in numbers, they are still an extremely small proportion applicants to Calif colleges.</p>
<p>good to know that, BlueBayou. I imagine that there must be other grants and scholarships that still use SAT scores, even though many of these seem to be aimed at the lower end of the spectrum. </p>
<p>Should smaller colleges and universities go SAT "optional"? I still think there are more reasons to keep the SAT than to chuck it. So do many others apparently, after all, optional does mean these institutions still consider it and evaluate test scores if they are submitted. In many ways, the "optional" option seems like a neat way to just sit on the fence. Granted, there are many legitimate questions and problems related to standardized testing, including fairness; and the validity of the SAT in the admissions process should be questioned and, in turn, put to the test.</p>
<p>I think that is why I find the following linked opinion article from Stanford University worth the read. </p>
<p>"Certainly, there are compelling arguments for continuing to use the SAT. No other tool exists to allow college admissions officers to compare students from vastly different backgrounds. Given the variation in high schools' curricula, grades and class rank can offer only so much information."</p>
<p>A college's announcement that SAT scores are "optional" tells the national pool of applicants that that college is beaten on the basis of average SAT score range in comparison with other colleges competing for similar students. It may still be a good college, but there is surely some college </p>
<p>1) in the same region, </p>
<p>2) offering the same programs, </p>
<p>3) at the same price, </p>
<p>at which matriculating students have higher SAT scores than the students that college has been able to attract recently.</p>
<p>For those good colleges, going SAT optional would then be a good competitive strategy to find a different market niche in that region in order to target and hopefully attract a different group of prospective students and boost the size of their applicant pools.</p>
<p>One more point- I would think "sitting on the fence" by going SAT optional is a beneficial choice in the case of those good, smaller colleges and universities that do not have large applicant pools but do have, or want, a competitive, more selective, application pool. These schools are those that most probably have dynamic, engaged admissions officers who use holistic admissions practices. In this case, the optional SAT scores, if submitted, would be just one more piece of information weighted in the wider context of other factors, such as GPA and diversity, in each student's application.</p>