Does a school's academic experience improve with increases in freshman SATs?

Parents Forum
1

<p>At many schools measures of student academic potential…namely SATs…have grown along with selectivity. Some examples:</p>

<p>MIDDLEBURY
1999 admit rate/SAT (m+v): 30%/1328 (mean)
2006 admit rate/SAT (m+v): 24%/1364 (mean)
<a href=“http://www.middlebury.edu/NR/rdonlyr...missions06.pdf[/url]”>http://www.middlebury.edu/NR/rdonlyr...missions06.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>BOWDOIN
1999 admit rate/SAT (m+v): 30.4%/1340 (median)
2006 admit rate/SAT (m+v): 21.6%/1400 (median)
<a href=“http://academic.bowdoin.edu/ir/data/admissions.shtml[/url]”>http://academic.bowdoin.edu/ir/data/admissions.shtml&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>TUFTS
1999 admit rate/SAT (m+v): 32%/1331 (mean)
2006 admit rate/SAT (m+v): 27%/1405 (mean)
<a href=“http://www.tufts.edu/ir/FACTBOOK20032004.pdf[/url]”>http://www.tufts.edu/ir/FACTBOOK20032004.pdf&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://www.tufts.edu/ir/FactBook20042005.pdf[/url]”>http://www.tufts.edu/ir/FactBook20042005.pdf&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://www.tufts.edu/ir/FactBook0607Abridged.pdf[/url]”>http://www.tufts.edu/ir/FactBook0607Abridged.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>WILLIAMS
1999 admit rate/SAT (m+v): 23.1%/1410 (avg of 25%-75% ranges)
2006 admit rate/SAT (m+v): 19.1%/1420 (avg of 25%-75% ranges)
<a href=“http://www.williams.edu/admin/provos…_admission.htm%5B/url%5D”>http://www.williams.edu/admin/provos…_admission.htm</a>
<a href=“Williams College”>Williams College;

<p>BOSTON COLLEGE
1999 admit rate/SAT (m+v): 35%/1285 (avg of 25%-75% ranges)
2006 admit rate/SAT (m+v): 29%/1320 (avg of 25%-75% ranges)
<a href=“http://www.bc.edu/publications/factb…_admission.pdf%5B/url%5D”>http://www.bc.edu/publications/factb…_admission.pdf</a></p>

<p>So, my question is: has the academic experience improved in any way (classroom to late-night peer banter) at colleges or universities that have seen steady & substantial increases in freshman student SAT scores?</p>

<p>Caveats…of course one could argue that some of these SAT increases are artificial due to an increase of the use of prep classes, but some of these SAT increases are pretty darned big. (& Bowdoin going SAT optional might cause an apparent SAT increase as well.) Also, SATs are certainly not the end-all as a metric of academic potential, as we all know, but its a convenient metric for this type of cross-institutional comparison nevertheless.</p>