<p>I still don’t think the SAT average will rise because of this policy and am not sure why everyone else thinks it will. See my previous post in this thread on how matriculating students who did not submit their SAT scores during the application process will have to submit them once they matriculate, for statistical purposes, such as the U.S. News ranking. Here’s a quote from the FAQ on Wake’s website about the new policy:</p>
<p>Q: Will our average SAT scores be artificially inflated, since presumably only those students with high SATs will admit them?</p>
<p>A: Any students who chose not to submit their SAT scores as part of their admissions application will be asked to submit the scores after they have received their acceptance letter. Therefore, our SAT scores should accurately reflect our incoming class. </p>
<p>Presumably, the major reason a student would apply and not submit their SAT/ACT score is because it is below Wake’s mean, since if it was at or above it, they’d have a great score they’d probably just include along in the application since it could only help them. Because of that, most likely any student Wake accepts (who decides to matriculate) will have a score below Wake’s usual mean. When these students matriculate THEY WILL report their scores, and those will then be averaged in for U.S. News, etc. Unless Wake accepts a disproportionately small number of people who don’t submit their SAT/ACT scores (which is also a possibility), then it should have slightly adverse effect on Wake’s average SAT score. Most likely, Wake’s SAT average will be about the same, or, if it rises in a few years, it’ll be because all the SAT scores at comparably ranked competitive schools are rising across the board (as they have throughout the history of admissions). </p>
<p>Agreed that their acceptance rate will go down, as it’s obvious there will be more applications and the same number of acceptances.</p>