Everyone knows that college graduates make more money, and that SAT scores can help or hinder your chances of getting into your university of choice.

Of course, if you don’t have stellar SAT scores, there are still plenty of ways to be successful, but high SAT scores just make it a little easier to follow the traditional path of college followed by a career.

Don’t be hasty

Of course, you’re probably going to need a money loan to go to college. If your SAT scores are so stellar that you get a scholarship to an Ivy League school, more power to you. But the reality for most people is that college is expensive.

So I must caution you: just because your SAT scores are good enough to get you into an uber-expensive school doesn’t mean you should automatically go there. So if you get your SAT results today, don’t automatically fax your application to Harvard. Here are some excerpts from an article I wrote on a SmartMoney study about private universities versus public.

Nuts and bolts

The SmartMoney report analyzed the cost of private school versus public schools based on out-of-state tuition. It looked at the cost of attending 50  university and the salaries of alumni three years later and 15 years later.

The results are not surprising. While many Ivy Leaguers do make higher salaries, the extra money they spend repaying their student loans cuts greatly into the return on their investment.

Money-saving tips for college

For students who move to a different state to go to college, private schools cost about 30 percent more. Stay home to go to school and that difference jumps to about 75 percent.

So going to a public school in your home state costs a quarter of what it would cost to go to a private school.

One college-girl’s opinion

As a college graduate myself, here’s my model for the least expensive way to get a degree:

Go to community college first. Tuition is a fraction of what it costs to go to a four-year university. After you transfer and get your bachelor’s degree, it’ll carry just as much weight as everyone else’s.

If you want to go to an out-of state school: Most states consider you a resident after you’ve lived there one year, as long as you only go to school part-time. So move to the place where you want to go to school, attend community college part-time for a year. Then you’ll be able to pay in-state tuition and fees for the rest of your college career.

SAT scores can save you money

So, if your SAT scores are good enough to get you into an expensive, private university, just think of the scholarships you could get for community college or a state school. You could end up getting to go to school for free!

So study hard, get good SAT scores and embrace your future earning potential.

SAT scores are coming out soon (or have already been released, depending upon when you read this). This brings thoughts of the future to millions of American high school students. Nervous feelings, excitement, expectation, even dread may color the pallet of days. What will the score mean for their college and career prospects? Does a high score ensure success in life? Does it make it easier to obtain a cash advance? Do all colleges still care about SAT scores?

No.

Jeremy Rodriguez reports for Carnegie Mellon’s The Tartan Online that an increasing number of colleges are ready to consider SAT scores optional in the admissions process.

Change the game

Thomas Espenshade and Chang Young Chung, a sociology professor and statistical programmer from Princeton University, have conducted a study that found that “dropping standardized test scores as an admissions requirement will lead to increased percentages of minority and socioeconomically disadvantaged students admitted to college.”

Clearly, it’s a story we’ve heard before, at least anecdotally. In the modeling for the study, researchers assumed that at the SAT-optional colleges, those with high scores would still apply there and receive the benefits of their scores. There are no advantage for high SAT scores at institutions that don’t use the scores in the admissions process.

Hooray for handouts

In the SAT-optional model, private colleges where applying black students with a mean SAT score of 1405, the percentage of admitted applicants who are black would increase by three percent. In an environment where the SAT was not considered at all, the percentage of accepted students goes up almost six percent. For Latino students, the numbers are three and four percent.

“There should be some correlation between the test and performance,” said Gordon Weinber, a Carnegie Mellon statistics professor. The correlation is not perfect, but certainly not zero. As we have seen with the recent election, when intelligence and reason are applied, what has been previously called affirmative action could be a good thing.”

Spat on the SAT

Some take a more Darwinian view of the college admission process and feel that the playing field should not be changed to aid those given fewer advantages.

“Someone underqualified should not take the place of someone more qualified [at a university],” said Sean Lawley, a senior mathematics major and teaching assistant. “Race should not affect admissions at all; the finite resources for research and learning should be put forth to the best students in those schools. They should consider the best means to evaluate talent and use that.”

Is the SAT an effective tool? Should it be held over teenagers’ heads like the sword of Damocles? Should you eat mayonnaise-based foods that have been sitting out overnight? Just say no.

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