Baylor University Stops Paying Incoming Students to Re-take the SAT
Oct 20th, 2008 • Posted in: NewsCritics condemned the practice, which gave admitted students financial rewards for increasing their score, as a blatant attempt to game the system and boost the university’s rating in guidebooks
WACO, Tex.
Baylor University, in the words of the New York Times editorial-writers’ blog, was caught “red faced — and red handed” after it was revealed that the Baptist university was paying incoming freshmen to retake the SATs, the most widely used college admission test.
Times editorial writer Brent Staples reports: “Administrators claimed that they were merely giving admitted students a chance to burnish their records and win so-called merit scholarships. But it seems more likely that Baylor’s marketing team was trying to drive up the school’s test scores — and move it up in college rankings, like the ones issued by U.S. News & World Report.”
For its part, U.S. News & World Report condemned the program, saying there is “no academic value in asking students already enrolled at the university to retake a college admissions test. U.S. News disapproves of any educational policy that’s designed solely to manipulate data to boost a school’s ranking.”
High-school students can routinely elect to retake the SAT, but according to education journal Inside Higher Ed, Baylor appeared to be the only institution offering a financial incentive to do so.
Baylor University’s student newspaper, the Lariat, which U.S. News & World Report credits with breaking the story, followed up late last week, reporting that Baylor officials now admit they “goofed” and will no longer offer incentives to retesters.
The Lariat reports that Baylor gave $300 in bookstore credit to incoming freshmen who retook the SAT. If the students scored 50 points or more higher, they received an additional $1,000 per year in scholarship money.
Sources: New York Times, Oct. 17 — Inside Higher Ed, Oct. 17 — U.S. News & World Report, Oct. 17 — Lariat, Oct. 17 — New York Times, Oct. 15.
For more information, see: Related Newsline story, Sep. 15 — Related Newsline story, June 9 — Related Newsline story, May 5 — Related Newsline story, Mar. 31.
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