I stay connected to a bunch of people at the City University of New York and Brooklyn College, where I used to work. The CUNY system is feeling a lot of strain; as I’ve said here several times before, most colleges are highly enrollment-dependent for basic fiscal solvency, and enrollment is down in CUNY generally. (Most blame Covid, but I suspect it’s more the job market.) But Hunter and Baruch are bright spots, likely because they have just dropped the SAT. This was sold in the name of equity, tearing down barriers for the marginalized. Of course, if reducing rigor in admissions means you let even more students in who will take on loan debt, struggle, then drop out, well….
At the top of the pyramid, elite schools with big endowments are less exposed to enrollment swings. But they need students whose parents will donate and who will in turn become donors after graduation themselves. And the SAT has traditionally been a barrier to harvesting the dullard sons of the 1% for that purpose. That’s who benefits the most from the demise of entrance tests, not poor Black strivers but those who could slouch their way to success everywhere but in the examination room.
Let me ask you, honestly: do you think the anti-SAT wave is really being powered by sociology professors and their demands for justice? Or is all about cash?
<insert “why not both” meme here>. Another great post, as usual.
Plus, at least for the elite schools, if dropping the SATs encourages more students to apply, the schools' acceptance rate will likely go down, which will make the schools look even more prestigious and goose their ratings in US News & World Report or whatever. (And they'll also make more in admissions fees--when I was applying to college, it was like $90 per application--although I don't realistically know how meaningful admissions fees are to the college's overall budget.)