An executive order from President Donald Trump requires universities to disclose the race, standardized test scores, and grade point averages of all applicants, The New York Times reports.
The order’s stated intent — barely concealed — is to ensure that colleges are not using race as a factor in admissions, but instead are relying strictly on quantitative measures such as GPA and standardized test scores. The move will increase pressure on colleges as their admissions policies come under the scrutiny of federal politicians.
Editorial
One major problem with this approach is that numerous studies find moderate-to-strong correlations between socioeconomic status (SES) indicators and SAT scores. For individual SES measures, such as family income, correlations in the range of 0.3 to 0.5 are common; when multiple SES factors are combined, the relationship is even stronger.
For example, from the lowest to highest income quintile, the mean SAT total score rises by 265 points (from 887 to 1152), and the percentage of test takers meeting both college-readiness benchmarks more than quadruples (15% to 63%).
In practical terms, this means that SES explains a substantial share of the variance in scores but not all of it. Many low-SES students still score high, and some high-SES students score low.
Parental education shows a similar pattern. SAT scores rise sharply as the educational attainment of students’ parents increases. While this correlation may be partly spurious — since people with higher degrees often have higher incomes — the effect is nonetheless pronounced.
The implication is clear: relying solely on test scores, without accounting for life experiences or context, will tend to advantage applicants from wealthier backgrounds. Which, some might say, is precisely the point.
It may also give White and Asian students an admissions advantage over Black or Hispanic students. Among 2024 high school graduates who took the SAT, just 1% of Black students and 2% of Hispanic students scored between 1400 and 1600 — the highest possible range — compared with 7% of White students and 27% of Asian students, according to the College Board.
If schools are compelled to use only quantitative data, diversity in the student body could decline, creating a more homogeneous and insular environment rather than a dynamic community of free thinkers. Elite universities in particular have long considered other qualities, such as exceptional skill in music or athletics, that enrich campus life and contribute to the United States’ standing as home to many of the world’s top universities.
We may be witnessing the start of a long decline. The most compassionate and hardest-working people I know did not have the highest test scores. And the president’s order to reduce human beings to nothing more than quantitative data, including test scores and GPA, is only accelerating the decline.
