College Board’s announcement of the new SAT adversity index expands the conversation about privilege and fairness in the application process.[1] As the recent college admissions scandal continues to unfold, this development intensifies the discussion. Watch Susan Shifflett, one of our Former Admissions Officers from Yale, provide her perspective about the SAT adversity index on ABC News! See the full interview here.
The new score, which students never see, will attempt to contextualize an applicant’s background by assigning a number on a scale of 1 to 100. It’s an effort to help students from low-income backgrounds by highlighting their SAT scores. For years, the fairness of standardized testing as an admissions criteria has been under fire.[2] Not everyone can afford test-preparation services, and research shows that standardized tests are more likely to favor white, male, wealthy students.
Most colleges use a holistic admissions process that seeks to understand where a student comes from and the opportunities available to them.[3] Admissions officers piece together an understanding of each student’s achievements within their own context. But the data-driven approach of the adversity score raises questions of how to define disadvantage. Is it possible to use a numerical score to quantify the challenges a student has faced? Can 15 factors capture the nuances of adversity? On the flip side, does assigning high-income students a “low score” essentially penalize them for coming from privilege? Watch Susan’s appearance on ABC News for a discussion of what the adversity score means for the college admissions process.
