Baylor´s Bid to Boost Rankings by Boosting SAT Scores
Stuart Nachbar
October 15, 2008
The Chronicle of Higher Education reported that Baylor University, a 14,000 student private institution based in Waco, Texas offered incoming freshmen a $300 bookstore credit if they would take the SATs again, and a $1,000 annual merit scholarship to those students who raised their scores by at least 50 points. The university hoped that students would appreciate the financial incentive and that higher test scores would help boost its published rankings. According to the story, 861 students retook the SAT and 151 raised their score by at least 50 points. See the story at http://chronicle.com/daily/2008/10/5112n.htm?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en.
This is an interesting proposition of risk versus reward. Boost your score by 50 points and you earn an additional $4,000 in scholarship money. Even if the student needs to pay a tutor, he can more than recoup their investment. Worse case, he gets a $300 bookstore credit and loses anything over that amount for any tutoring expense. No one can blame the best test-takers for taking Baylor up on its offer; they´ve already made a commitment to the school, and they´d appreciate the savings.
It´s odd for a university to take such steps to award merit-based aid, but look at this from Baylor´s perspective. Baylor is the largest privately supported university in Texas, a state with high-quality public universities, as well as Rice, a very well endowed institution considered the equal of the Ivy League. Texas public universities have a policy of offering admission based on class rank; students in the top ten percent of their class can attend the school of their choice. According to Baylor´s Web site, eighty percent of its student body comes from Texas. The admissions office would have to be committed to compete very hard to attract the best-of-the-best away from Rice, Southern Methodist and the University of Texas-Austin. Considering their resources, Baylor has done a remarkable job.
According to the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, Baylor enrolled 84 National Merit Scholars in 2007, and sponsored 70 with their own funds. By comparison, the University of Texas-Austin sponsors more than 230 Merit Scholars, Texas A&M 134, and Rice 95. Baylor´s endowment is also far lower than these institutions: approximately $1 billion versus $15.6 billion for University of Texas System, $6.6 billion for Texas A&M and $4.7 billion for Rice. Even Southern Methodist, a smaller university has an endowment that is $200 million higher than Baylor´s.
In addition to fiscal constraints, Baylor is not located in a major metropolitan center for entry level employment. Rice and Southern Methodist, being in Houston and the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex respectively, are in a better position to help students find work and maintain relationships with them after graduation. And unlike Rice and Southern Methodist, Baylor maintains their commitment to major college football, playing in the highly competitive Big 12 conference against the likes of Texas and Oklahoma. Baylor is not in the best position to compete in that arena; the university might want to reconsider the investment in football if they want to be more serious about academics.
Baylor is in the Texas equivalent of a "no-win" scenario. Being a large institution faced with strong intra-state competition, it must compete by going after good students who may rank outside the first tenth of their classes, but have very high standardized test scores.
Nationally, Baylor is more similar to Syracuse than any other large private university. Both have similar enrollment numbers and endowments and both are not located in major employment centers. But Syracuse has a higher U.S. News ranking than Baylor, even though the Texas school has far more Merit Scholars. The differences: Syracuse has higher graduation and retention rates and fewer large classes. The SAT range for both schools is approximately the same. This shows three places where Baylor needs to invest to become more competitive, as opposed to providing incentives to raise the school´s average SATs.
The major problem with Baylor´s recent incentive program is that it, while it was a "win" for the scholarship recipients; it raised the school´s median SATs by only ten points, hardly enough to matter in advancing up any rankings. The ideas for Baylor´s incentives also came at a time when admissions officers across the country are reconsidering the importance of the SAT in selecting a class. The Chronicle story also reported that there was resentment among upperclassmen expressed through the student newspaper.
It might have been better to use merit-based funds on the upperclassmen who are already there. They have succeeded at a more important test: the academics of Baylor University. And no doubt, they´d appreciate the extra funds to help them find a job or pay for graduate school after they leave. The thanks of grateful alumni will do more for Baylor´s long-term future than an incentive to re-take a standardized test.
Contact Stuart Nachbar at http://www.EducatedQuest.com, a blog on education politics, policy and technology or read about his first book, The Sex Ed Chronicles, a novel on education and politics in 1980 New Jersey, at http://wwwd.SexEdChronicles.com.
This is an interesting proposition of risk versus reward. Boost your score by 50 points and you earn an additional $4,000 in scholarship money. Even if the student needs to pay a tutor, he can more than recoup their investment. Worse case, he gets a $300 bookstore credit and loses anything over that amount for any tutoring expense. No one can blame the best test-takers for taking Baylor up on its offer; they´ve already made a commitment to the school, and they´d appreciate the savings.
It´s odd for a university to take such steps to award merit-based aid, but look at this from Baylor´s perspective. Baylor is the largest privately supported university in Texas, a state with high-quality public universities, as well as Rice, a very well endowed institution considered the equal of the Ivy League. Texas public universities have a policy of offering admission based on class rank; students in the top ten percent of their class can attend the school of their choice. According to Baylor´s Web site, eighty percent of its student body comes from Texas. The admissions office would have to be committed to compete very hard to attract the best-of-the-best away from Rice, Southern Methodist and the University of Texas-Austin. Considering their resources, Baylor has done a remarkable job.
According to the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, Baylor enrolled 84 National Merit Scholars in 2007, and sponsored 70 with their own funds. By comparison, the University of Texas-Austin sponsors more than 230 Merit Scholars, Texas A&M 134, and Rice 95. Baylor´s endowment is also far lower than these institutions: approximately $1 billion versus $15.6 billion for University of Texas System, $6.6 billion for Texas A&M and $4.7 billion for Rice. Even Southern Methodist, a smaller university has an endowment that is $200 million higher than Baylor´s.
In addition to fiscal constraints, Baylor is not located in a major metropolitan center for entry level employment. Rice and Southern Methodist, being in Houston and the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex respectively, are in a better position to help students find work and maintain relationships with them after graduation. And unlike Rice and Southern Methodist, Baylor maintains their commitment to major college football, playing in the highly competitive Big 12 conference against the likes of Texas and Oklahoma. Baylor is not in the best position to compete in that arena; the university might want to reconsider the investment in football if they want to be more serious about academics.
Baylor is in the Texas equivalent of a "no-win" scenario. Being a large institution faced with strong intra-state competition, it must compete by going after good students who may rank outside the first tenth of their classes, but have very high standardized test scores.
Nationally, Baylor is more similar to Syracuse than any other large private university. Both have similar enrollment numbers and endowments and both are not located in major employment centers. But Syracuse has a higher U.S. News ranking than Baylor, even though the Texas school has far more Merit Scholars. The differences: Syracuse has higher graduation and retention rates and fewer large classes. The SAT range for both schools is approximately the same. This shows three places where Baylor needs to invest to become more competitive, as opposed to providing incentives to raise the school´s average SATs.
The major problem with Baylor´s recent incentive program is that it, while it was a "win" for the scholarship recipients; it raised the school´s median SATs by only ten points, hardly enough to matter in advancing up any rankings. The ideas for Baylor´s incentives also came at a time when admissions officers across the country are reconsidering the importance of the SAT in selecting a class. The Chronicle story also reported that there was resentment among upperclassmen expressed through the student newspaper.
It might have been better to use merit-based funds on the upperclassmen who are already there. They have succeeded at a more important test: the academics of Baylor University. And no doubt, they´d appreciate the extra funds to help them find a job or pay for graduate school after they leave. The thanks of grateful alumni will do more for Baylor´s long-term future than an incentive to re-take a standardized test.
Contact Stuart Nachbar at http://www.EducatedQuest.com, a blog on education politics, policy and technology or read about his first book, The Sex Ed Chronicles, a novel on education and politics in 1980 New Jersey, at http://wwwd.SexEdChronicles.com.
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