The only problem with GPAs as indicators is the massive grade inflation in the public schools. I know: I was a teacher with LAUSD for 16 years, and I inflated along with everyone else (well, I didn’t inflate the A’s and B’s, but I did everything I could to turn F’s and D’s into C’s, because admin made it clear that if we didn’t, all fails were our fault. I took the earliest retirement I could because the whole system made me sick.)
I know—and I liked the SAT as it was so objective—maybe over time the GPA being the best correlation to high performance in college will fade. I see a lot of grade inflation going on at Cal State as well. I went to UC in the late 1980s and there was no extra credit, open book/open note tests, etc. I see lots of that now at Cal State, and lots of “online learning” where it’s easy to cheat.
These will be our future engineers and pilots and surgeons so it’s scary. Not sure where the excellence is anymore.