Letter to the Editor, The Wall Street Journal
“New Weights Can Alter SAT Scores” reported The Wall Street Journal in its August 31 Marketplace section. And among the weights the Educational Testing Service is adding so colleges can discern the “Strivers” among their applicants are quality-of-life factors like “kinds of electrical appliances” in their homes.
Ergo, students should beware of self-reporting household items like color TVs with premium cable service, electric toothbrushes, and computers with high-speed modems. They should admit to nothing more advanced than wood stoves and hand-cranked ice-cream makers lest the ETS formula plop them among the ranks of the non-striving Privileged, worthy of no bonus SAT points.
It would be an even better idea if they asked Aunt Sadie in Des Moines to hustle up some genealogical proof of minority ancestry in the family (or else just lie about it). Because plainly one must be a member of a preferred group to rate being an ETS-certified Striver.
This weighing game is all about continuing outlawed affirmative action by statistical sleight. It is amazing that intellectuals strive so absurdly to kill the ideal of individual merit.
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