Ratings
Baylor University in Waco, Texas is eager to join the national ranks as a respected academic institution. Without going into too many details, the admissions office is pulling out the stops to increase the yeild of admitted students who attend, and to improve other factors that go into the USNews and World Reports annual college rankings.
Some of the practices appear to push the limits of ethical best practices. I filed an ethics complaint last year about one practice that I won’t recount here.
However, this Baylor practice that offers financial incentives for admitted and enrolled students to retake the SAT is being questioned on Baylor’s campus, rightly so. The conclusion I come up with is that the score gain is only a few points, which suggests that Baylor is able to enroll the less competitive students who are admitted. The score increase would be greater is the university were enrolling brighter kids.
Baylor offered the class of 2012 a $300 Baylor Bookstore credit and potential scholarship incentives to retake the SAT in June, after they were already accepted and enrolled.
An e-mail sent in June to incoming freshmen stated that students who chose to retest would automatically receive a $300 credit to the bookstore.
If a student scored 50 points or higher on the retest, they received an additional $1,000 a year to their scholarship package.
They had the option of retesting on June 7, a national testing day, or taking the Baylor Residual SAT on campus at another designated time in June or during orientation.
