Splicetoday

Politics & Media
Apr 15, 2008, 05:41AM

Dropping the SAT is Un-American

A conservative columnist for American University's The Eagle thinks testing serves an American purpose: it helps define winners and losers.

"Providence College made news a while back because it's are one of the first top-tier schools to have stopped requiring SAT scores. My question is why? Is it because it's not fair to those who don't test well? Isn't that really just punishing those who do test well? I had believed that the point of requiring the SAT was to ensure that the students a college accepts are well-rounded. They asked for the GPA to check if you had a work ethic, and then they checked the SAT to test your basic reasoning skills.

And you know what else? The SAT works. I scored very poorly on the math section of my SAT because I'm not very good at math, and I was too lazy to try and do better. I have to live with that, and I had to deal with the consequences. If a person scores poorly on the verbal section because he or she watched MTV instead of picking up a book, then so be it. Those who are going to college know the game and know the rules, so it is up to them to find their way. Why should a college have to change their criteria to cater to anyone?

READ MORE

Discussion
  • "This is a hard fact in American culture: You have to work hard, really hard to win. Nothing is handed to you....." Are you kidding me? What about legacies? Trust funds? What about the ability to donate large amounts of money to an organization you want to influence. What about paying for one-on-one tutoring? I could go on. You need only to look at our current president. A graduate of Yale and Harvard. Hmmmm. I guess he earned his way into those programs with all his hard work. Exactly what standards are you referring to?

    Responses to this comment
  • Just because one doesn't apply oneself until they're almost forty years old doesn't mean that they can't use their family's political connections to maneuver into the Presidency. God bless America!

    Responses to this comment
  • Bruce is right. You can be past 40, and use family connections (and a rolling pin) to win a senate seat from a state you're not from and then win the presidency. Oh wait, I forgot, that plan got derailed. Go Barack!

    Responses to this comment

Register or Login to leave a comment