<p>{{I’d say they’re at least four under. I’ll call it a draw. I mean, Colgate}}</p>
<p>Colgate, as well as many colleges, dropped the SAT requirement.
I’m amazed US News doesn’t issue a disclaimer stating the statistics used to compute the rankings vary from college to college. If Smith became an SAT optional college their mid 50% range would be 10-15% higher and equal to most colleges above it.</p>
<p>When the rankings were released twenty four months ago Smith was rated #13….And <em>what</em> has changed so drastically in 104 weeks? Nothing!!</p>
<p>It might behoove those who use the rankings for bragging rights to read the following article. That includes Smithies and parents (yup, I’m guilty too) who like to politely point out Smith is ranked higher than a few other women’s colleges. :)</p>
<p><a href=“http://magazine.uchicago.edu/0110/features/abuse.html[/url]”>http://magazine.uchicago.edu/0110/features/abuse.html</a></p>
<p>“Even the drive to abolish SAT scores from college admissions-a campaign that seems to go hand in hand with a distaste for rankings-has been tainted with accusations that the real purpose of dropping SATs is to raise the school’s average SAT score in the U.S. News rankings. If SATs are optional, only high scorers submit them, thus increasing the average score a school can faithfully report. Schools also benefit from an increased number of applications from students who see their SATs as a barrier to other institutions, thus driving up the school’s selectivity along with its application rate.”</p>
<p>“There are also colleges that discriminate against good applicants who might lower the school’s yield by taking an offer from a more prestigious school. “I actually know of institutions-I have been told by the people who make the decisions,” says Geof Stone, “that they have adopted a policy of not admitting the strongest applicants, entirely dictated by U.S. News and World Report. This is a practice which could never be defended in any substantive way.”</p>
<p>OT- Hi Xiggi… Nice too see you here :)</p>