That is what the University of Baylor figured this year, when it gave incoming first-years a $300 credit at the campus bookstore to retake the SAT and a $1,000 yearly merit scholarship to those who raised their score by 50 points.
As reported by The New York Times, the offer raised the college’s average SAT from 1200 to 1210.
“Every university wants to have great SAT scores. Every university wants to be perceived as having a high-quality class. We all wanted that,” said Baylor President John Barry in the article. “Were we happy our SAT scores went up? Yes. Did our students earn their scores? Yes they did.”
The day the Times article came out, the faculty of the University passed a motion criticizing the effort. “This practice is academically dishonest and should be discontinued,” the motion read.
—Jonathan Thrope