It's Official: Ditching The SATs Was A Big Mistake

Washington Examiner ^ | 12/13/2025 | Jonathan Miltimore

[arthurus]

it accelerated a trend toward lower academic standards—one that harmed not just the reputation of universities, but also students who were admitted for all the wrong reasons

As well as the capable and intelligent students who are not focused on useful fields like math and hard sciences. A few, many of whom qualify as Asperger's or high functioning autistic get through very well because their minds are totally focused on these these things. Other intelligent students are not so focused and get sucked into trendy and nonremunerative majors like Transwomen's Literature of the 1850s.

[arthurus]

solution is NO government money to universities for anything at all including NO government loans. If USG needs the research done at Universities then the government should fund its own labs and hire the scientists but, outside of hard military needs, there is no valid reason for the government to be involved at all. The universities will then have to cut out all the frivolous and ideological courses and lower tuition drastically to something sane in order to not have to close down altogether.

[Tired of Taxes]

"Research shows that high school GPAs don’t tell you much about how students perform once they get to campus. Standardized test results, however, do."

Well, then...

IF high school diplomas, grades, and GPAs mean nothing
and SAT scores are the most important indicator for college admissions,
then why must students submit high school transcripts for college admission?

Why not admit students by their SAT scores alone?
Many homeschoolers would love that policy, instead of jumping through extra hoops because they never went to school, even if their SAT scores are high.

Everyone here should make a decision: Either the high school diploma counts for something... or not.

[Adder]

Sadly, they will be left paying the price.

So will we all as they enter a workforce becoming dumber because of their pass thru diplomas and crippling debt.
I guess it makes a kind of sense when you see some video of a college grad pulling coffee because the “can’t find a job”. Maybe it’s because they aren’t proficient in their field or hold a useless diploma...

[Fury]

Apparently (based on your post) you don’t even know why I post the “Grow up” message. Oh well.

I wonder how helpful your post will be in black Americans hopefully participating at FR.

[Regulator]

When it comes to UC, and UCSD in particular, you’re correct.

White males need not apply. What’s important is the essay, which has to be a tear jerker description of your battle against the White male patriarchy.

That’s what the UC runs on.

No one should pay any attention to their “warnings “ about education. The people who get in are the people who look like the admissions committees: the rainbow coalition of morons.

[alexander_busek]

"Excuse me captain, this may sound silly, but can you fly?" "Nope, never had a lesson."

"Dirty Harry."

Regards,

[LastDayz]

What’s just as bad is ditching aptitude tests for the trades... DOH.

[cnsmom]

College is just a post High School DEI Sports Camp Program for parents seeking Empty Nest Day Care.

[rdcbn1]

Talked to some of my ex colleagues at a prominent research university and they told me horror stories about DEI admits in the era of holistic, no entrance exam admissions.

They had DEI students with perfect straight A GPAs and phony baloney admissions paperwork from inner city high schools admitted who had problems with the most basic arithmetic and reading/writing skills. These students did not even belong in college, much less a top ranked university. It was a debacle

[Aevery_Freeman]

And then the colleges get a bad reputation, then less fewer people go there, then the college loses funding, and less fewer people go there

Personal bugaboo, we have lost the distinction between less and fewer.

No offense meant but we were discussing college entrance exams so...

[Aevery_Freeman]

Yes, excellent observation.

True in High School as well.

[norwaypinesavage]

I had a lifelong friend who has since passed away who was an engineering professor at a well-known state university. He started his career at small mid-western engineering college that has a well-respected reputation for its engineering graduates. He pointed out, however that much of the faculty there was not particularly highly credentialed. His point was that the college’s reputation for excellent graduated was not due to the teaching staff, it was due to its extremely high admission standards. It was good only because it chose good students, not because it had good instructors. I’m quite sure this holds true all across the university spectrum. The universities that chose crummy students will get crummy graduates.

[NorthMountain]

Worldwide IQ distribution:

The truth is not racist.

[Srednik]

It is an unfair money-grab to admit students who will never graduate. Universities excel at such greed.

[trebb]

Schools got so bad that hardly anyone who “graduated” was eligible for college.....and Kalifornia schools led the way down into apathetic ignorance...

[oldbill]

7+2=( )+6
The answer is 2, for large values of 2

[cgbg]

Modern physics says the answer depends on how fast the parentheses is moving.

Lol.

[CodeToad]

Harvard had a year when the students did worse on the entrance exam at graduation.

[Fury]

And you’re pinging me on this…. why?