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The following, copied from The Daily Report from the Chronicle of Higher Education, seems to be yet another instance of how the gates of academic can widen -- or narrow -- given the market for incoming students and the need to attract more of them to fill seats in schools with "higher rankings." Gene Kerstiens ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------ A glance at the October 30 issue of "The New Republic": The real reason colleges drop SAT requirements Colleges are eliminating SAT scores as admissions requirements to increase their positions in the "U.S. News & World Report" rankings, writes Marcia Yablon, a reporter-researcher at "The New Republic." "It's the dirty little secret of competitive college admissions: Make the SAT optional, and your "U.S. News" ranking ... will almost certainly rise," she writes. Ms. Yablon explains that by not requiring students to submit their SAT scores, colleges can better their ranking in a number of ways. Only students with strong scores will submit them, "leading to an increase of as much as 100 points in a college's lowest scores." Also, more students will apply if SAT scores are not mandatory, continues Ms. Yablon, "and thus a lower percentage will be admitted, which boosts a college's 'selectivity' rating." In addition, "the overall high-school grade-point average (and class rank) of incoming freshmen will also go up, as more students with high G.P.A.'s but low SAT's apply." Citing many examples of colleges that have recently benefited from the practice, such as Bowdoin, Dickinson, and Muhlenberg Colleges, Ms. Yablon writes that the "recent trend toward dropping the SAT requirement among small liberal-arts colleges provides ample evidence of a rankings cause and effect." She also distinguishes the trend from one at large state universities, where the test is made "voluntary so that it's harder to prove that they're letting in minority students with lower scores -- and thereby practicing potentially unconstitutional affirmative action." The article is not available online, but information about the magazine may be found at http://www.thenewrepublic.com _________________________________________________________________