Psych study says U. should ignore SAT

If the University follows the advice of two campus psychology professors, Scholastic Aptitude Test scores will no longer be a factor in the University's admissions process. According to a study published in a psychology journal last month by co-authors Jonathan Baron and Frank Norman, class rank and achievement test scores are the most predictable means of determining an applicant's college success, and the SAT is "almost an I.Q. test," Baron said yesterday. But Admissions Dean Lee Stetson said last night that the University will continue using SAT scores in the admissions process. Stetson, who called the study "well thought through," said the University uses the SAT as a way to compare applicants to each other. Baron, chairman of the committee which deals with admissions for the College, said the SAT tests information which most students need to know even before entering high school but achievement tests evaluate knowledge about specific topics. Baron and Norman studied the University's graduating classes from 1983 and 1984 and compared students' SAT and achievement test scores and class ranks with their cumulative grade point averages and grades in specific classes. Their results show that achievement scores are a better means of measuring a potential student's academic success at the University. Baron said he spent three years trying to secure the application information for members of the two classes and was denied access until former College Dean Norman Adler intervened on his behalf. "Admissions wasn't about to give the data to anyone," Baron said. Baron said the University's admissions office equally weighs three predictors in determining an applicant's academic success -- class rank, achievement scores and SAT scores. From these three factors, he said, each applicant is given a score according to the University's academic predictive index. The study suggests that only class rank and achievement scores should be used during the process in the future. Baron said the best predictor is class rank. "Those students who do well in high school are going to do well in college," Baron said. But Stetson insists the SAT is an integral part of the admissions process. "SATs are . . . a factor that is used to compare students across the country and across high school backgrounds," he said. "Anybody who uses the SAT as a finite predictor [of a student's college success] are not making correct use of the SAT." Baron said he became interested in the admissions process after he read The Case Against the SAT, a book which questions the validity of the SAT. In addition to dropping the SAT, Baron said he suggests that universities change achievement test requirements to assure that students take a mathematics or science test in addition to the required English achievement. The third test taken would be the choice of each student. To ensure that the psychology professors' study was done with an adequate range of types of college applicants, Baron said he and Norman also studied data from the University of Delaware and other schools. According to University by-laws, the admissions process is technically under the authority of the faculty, but as a group the faculty rarely is involved with changes in admissions procedures, Baron said. Baron said the faculty has the right to vote to adopt his study's recommendations. Baron presented the study to the Provost's Committee on Admissions and Stetson said "it is my understanding this is a study that does not necessarily represent the view of the entire faculty." Faculty Senate Chairperson David Hildebrand said last night that he knows of no movement among faculty members to modify the admissions criteria. "I haven't heard the faculty wanting to take over the admissions department," he said.

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