Washington Post Expands Higher Ed Coverage

With more and more high school students applying to college and many universities getting increasingly selective, interest in higher education issues has never been higher. Perhaps that’s why the Washington Post is the latest media outlet to expand its higher education coverage. This week, the newspaper announced it is launching a new on-line page  that offers college news and admissions advice. Features include free articles from the Chronicle of Higher Education and the latest headlines from Washington area campus newspapers. The site also includes a link to Admissions 101, a Washington Post blog that offers college admissions advice daily.

Today’s admissions topic is the SAT as a predictor of college success. Referring to “Crossing the Finish Line,” a book by former Princeton President William G. Bowen and co-authors, blogger Jay Matthews says: “The book, at least as I understand it, concludes that high school GPA is four times as good a predictor of college completion as the SAT.” He then asks readers to weigh in on the following questions.  Anybody see any contrary research? Should we demand that the colleges recalibrate their rating systems? Or can we be assured that all kids with high GPAs are going to get into decent, if not famous, colleges, so this isn’t really a problem?” See what readers have to say.