Executives Urge Colleges To Downplay SAT

Over 700 college presidents will receive a letter over the next few days urging them to reduce the importance of SAT scores in the college admissions process.

The letter writing campaign is part of a massive effort launched Wednesday, mounted by some of the country's top business executives, including leaders of Shell Oil and Verizon Communications along with the National Urban League, to argue SAT scores are a poor prediction of future success.

"In corporate America, we routinely place bets on people, including many top-flight executives who may not have excelled 'on paper,'" the letter reads.

The letter does not urge colleges to ignore the SAT altogether but encourages colleges to find better ways to measure applicants' leadership and creativity.

Despite the letter's claims, Harvard University's Office of Admissions say they have no intention to reconfigure the role of SAT scores in Harvard's admissions process.

"We are in the admissions business and they [the businesses] are not," Marlyn McGrath-Lewis `70-`73, Harvard's Director of Admissions said. "We have no plan not to use the SAT."

The SATs are merely common yardstick for the Admissions office. Decisions are not based just on test scores.

McGrath-Lewis noted the high frequency of attacks against the SAT's role in the college admission process.

"It's become fashionable to hear the SATs are not useful," McGrath-Lewis said. "[The businesses] assert that the SATs are not a good measure of things they value. We use them for admissions to college."

McGrath-Lewis said the College focuses on finding a student who will be a good academic fit for Harvard.

"We know people can be very successful in the world but are not at this time in their life good academic matches," McGrath-Lewis said.

She said she is reluctant to lose any data available to evaluate a candidate. She also stressed the importance of forming a through picture of a candidate's strengths and weaknesses, as well as the importance of grades accumulated through out high school.

"The solution to imperfect data is more information rather than less," McGrath Lewis said.