Wake Forest’s decision to make the SAT optional for applicants has been generating plenty of controversy. In this week’s Clarion Call, Jay Schalin takes a look at the book by a Wake Forest professor that appears to justify the university’s new policy — and finds much to disagree with.
As I see it, the upshot of this change is that it’s going to further diversify the student body not only in the way the administration believes is socially good (more “students of color”) but also with regard to the range of academic ability. Some professors will probably find themselves struggling with the problem of teaching a course where a substantial number of the students are well below the rest in their capacity for college work.
The sharp kids Wake turns away will go to college elsewhere. Some of them would have been hugely successful and would eventually have given the school a lot of money. In the long run, this decision will probably have an adverse impact on donations, but the current administrators prefer to revel in the feeling that they’re doing something to advance “social justice.”
