I can argue this both ways.
The SAT is an IQ test, straight up. Intelligence is not the only, and maybe isn’t even the most important, aspect of MERIT.
Take yours truly. 1526 junior SAT (like a dope, I took it again), B+ high school average, class rank 43/468, in other words, gifted and lazy.
You certainly wouldn’t describe my HS career as “meritorious”, and unfortunately for my 18-year old ego, a lot of colleges agreed.
HOWEVER - IQ has a lot to do with college-level work. At any -10%ile of IQ, the work gets harder. Sure, there are hard workers all down the line, some of they are admirable people who have a lot to offer society.
But that doesn’t mean they should go to college, and it ESPECIALLY doesn’t mean they should go to Harvard-Yale-Princeton-Stanford.
Sending a kid below 1450 to H-Y-P-S is signing him up to be tortured. When you look at the suicides, I bet most of them are in this category. 4.0 high school, team captain or club president, volunteer activities benefiting their community, first ever from East Nowhere to get accepted at Harvard, 1300 SAT - BIG PROBLEM. That kid is LOADED with merit. He just doesn’t belong at Harvard.
Smart is good. With the right career - smart guy match, it’s VERY good. But there is much more than that to merit.
The best should get in...how about diversity for the baseball team???
I would argue that these institutions are torture, no matter what your score.
Sending a kid below 1450 to H-Y-P-S is signing him up to be tortured. When you look at the suicides, I bet most of them are in this category.
I saw this happen. It’s “fair”, like sending infantry soldiers off to war with zero training.
They’re fine if they get into Harvard. Knew a prof there over 20 years ago who was directly told that she would not be failing anyone from certain key demographics.
The suicides in college in Cambridge tend to come from MIT, with those Asian students who were able to ace their classes until they hit the big time.
Not quite. The SAT assesses a a broad base of subject MATTER knowledge, stuff you should have learned the first 10 or so grades of school.
IQ assesses aptitude for learning, for creative thinking outside of a box, independent of substantive subject matter.
“The SAT is an IQ test, straight up.”
The SAT is hardly an IQ test. It is a knowledge test. Knowing something is not IQ. Being able to derive something is IQ.