Office of Institutional Research White Paper: SAT Scores as Predictors of Academic Success August 29, 2013

Executive Summary: This study evaluated the relationship between academic outcomes and SAT scores. A descriptive analysis indicated that students with higher SAT scores tend on average to have better academic outcomes (retention, graduation, and cumulative GPA), although this relationship was weaker at the higher end of the SAT score spectrum (i.e. students with very high SAT scores do not necessarily have better academic outcomes). There were some differences among certain demographic subgroups in the strength of the relationship between SAT scores and academic outcomes. Results of multivariate statistical analyses, which jointly evaluated the relationship among academic outcomes, SAT scores, and high school GPA indicated that high school GPA is a more powerful predictor of academic outcomes than SAT scores. In fact, for retention and graduation rates, the unique contribution of SAT scores is non-significant when high school GPA is included in the model. As a final note, it was observed that students with high SAT scores but low high school GPA tend to have very poor outcomes at Siena College.