Standardized Test Scores and Academic Performance at Ivy Plus Colleges

John N. Friedman, Bruce Sacerdote, Douglas O. Staiger and Michele Tine

AEA Papers and Proceedings, 2025, vol. 115, 676-81

Abstract: We analyze admissions and transcript records for students at multiple Ivy Plus colleges to study the relationship between standardized (SAT/ACT) test scores, high school GPA, and first-year college grades. Standardized test scores predict academic outcomes four times better than high school GPA conditional on students' race, gender, and socioeconomic status. Standardized test scores also exhibit no calibration bias, as they do not underpredict college performance for students from less advantaged backgrounds. Collectively, these results suggest that standardized test scores provide important information to measure applicants' academic preparation that is not available elsewhere in the application file.

JEL-codes: I23 I26 I28 J16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1257/pandp.20251056

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