The information available on colleges is generally outstanding. We like to do our own research, so looking at each school’s Common Data set can be a helpful tool. However, it seems there are many schools that provide no really useful information in the CDS regarding the high school achievement level of their students (helpful to understand the makeup of a school’s students).
We all know that MIT students have high test scores, and high HS grades. But as more and more schools do not REQUIRE standardized test scores, there seem to be many CDSs with essentially no legitimate data in this regard. Schools should be providing at least ONE of the data categories (SAT/ACT scores, HS rank, or HS GPA) for 100% of its students. If only 35% of students submitted SAT/ACT scores because the school doesn’t require them for admission, and only 26% of the students reported HS rank, the data is certainly biased and possibly worthless. When these schools then fail to provide HS GPA information (they all require a HS transcript for admission, don’t they?), we’re left wondering if it’s data the school doesn’t want to publish.
Unfortunately, regardless of what percentage of students a school’s SAT score range is based on (20%, 30%, 40%, 90%) that data is repeated over and over by the school and other ‘college data’ sites as being a true characteristic of that school’s student body, and something that can be compared school-to-school. It may very well be neither.