PCUCThe California University system is considering dropping their courtship of students winning National Merit Scholarships. The reason sounds sensible at first:
They note that UC itself relies on an array of factors — not just standardized tests — to evaluate students' academic merit. And they contend that there is no evidence that the PSAT by itself is an accurate predictor of college performance.But of course, that is not the real reason:
In addition, these critics say that the National Merit selection process yields too few Latino, black, low-income and other underrepresented groups of students every year among the 8,000-plus U.S. scholarship winners. About 3% of UC's National Merit students are black, Latino or Native American, according to the most recent available statistics.Nobody suggests that the PSAT or the SAT should be the sole criterion on which students are judged. But it does have one significant advantage in that it is an objective measurement of a student's knowledge base. Everything else; from interviews to grades to class percentile can be subjective.
The good news is that only the UC schools will be affected; private schools will no doubt be happy to take up the slack in demand for the National Merit Scholarship winners.
