The Atlanta Journal-Constitution just did a report on student athletes’ SAT scores. Through a public records request, they found average SAT scores for entering freshmen students, athletes, and football players, for public universities in different athletic conferences. Not surprisingly, athletes’ SAT scores tended to lag behind the average scores of university students. This was particularly true for football players, as their average SAT scores were some of the lowest. Obviously, football and scholastic aptitude infrequently go together.

But a SAT score is more than a proprietary college admissions number—it can also be used as a proxy for IQ, or general intelligence. Back in 2004, Meredith Frey and Douglas Detterman published a paper in the Psychological Science journal where they correlated SAT scores with the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) and Raven’s Advanced Progressive Matrices (APM)–both of which are used to estimate IQ, and correlate strongly with other intelligence tests. Two equations were derived for predicting IQ from SAT scores. However, only one proved to be reliable for post-1994 SATs, as the test underwent significant changes and scores were recentered that year.

XIQ = (0.095 * SAT-Math) + (-0.003 * SAT-Verbal) + 50.241

Using this equation, the correlation between SAT and Raven’s APM scores was found to be .72 after adjusting for a restricted sample range (n=116, σ=119). To verify the stability of the equation, a jackknife procedure was undertaken where the equation is derived from on one-half the sample, tested on the second-half, then repeated vice-versa. Correlations from the two tests were .523 and .542, respectively (p < .01).

I took this equation and applied it to the SAT scores listed in the AJC report. Of course, only composite scores were reported. So, I found the average verbal and math scores for each testing year, and calculated each score’s percentage of the total. These percentages were used to find a rough estimate of students’ and athletes’ average sub-scores. Both male and female averages were utilized for the student population, whereas only average male subscores were included for atheletes and football players, as these two groups are predominately male.

The SAT scores and estimated IQs for students, athletes, and football players, from 54 public universities, in eight division conferences, can be found below:

This table and more details can be found in this spreadsheet:

  College-Athletes-SAT-and-IQ-Scores.xlsx (57.8 KiB, 981 hits)

In terms of conferences as a whole, the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) ranked first in average IQ for students and athletes, while the Big Ten conference took first for football players, with an average of 94.7. The Big 12 conference had both the athletes and football players with the lowest average IQ, at 97.1 and 93.3 respectively. The Big East had the students with the lowest IQ, averaging 102.7. Conference-USA and the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) are not included in that ranking as only one school was represented from each.

The schools with the largest gaps in SAT and IQ scores were Florida State and UCLA. Florida´s SAT and IQ gap was 346 and 16.1, respectively. UCLA was 345 and 16.5. AJC´s Mark Knobler noted that these gaps between football players and students are larger than in typical students between the University of Georgia and Harvard University. Oregon State had the smallest SAT and IQ gap—88 and 5.2 points, respectively.

Surprisingly though, basketball players were even worse off than those specializing in the pigskin.

Nationwide, football players average 220 points lower on the SAT than their classmates — and men’s basketball players average seven points less than football players.

Sports are big business for these universities. Coaches rotate on what seems like a quadrennial basis, often making more than the presidents of their universities. Their temporary, high paid tenures and golden parachutes are analogous to that of many high profile CEOs. As for players, admission requirements for typical students rarely have any relevancy for talented athletes, who may even receive all-expenses paid scholarships in addition to enrollment with GPA and SAT/ACT scores that are below minimum acceptance.

And, there are also other examples of sports dominating and superseding university policies.

I know that Mississippi State University, an SEC school, provides free daily tutoring, specifically, for all athletes—the civilian student body need not apply. And should an athlete’s GPA fall below minimum for any semester, that tutoring becomes mandatory. Again, this is not true for regular students. Another school, the University of Southern Mississippi, actually closes its library a couple hours before any football game—even if the game is during the week. At USM, at least, access to football is more important than access books.

And while I am not familiar with the intricacies of other university’s sports programs, I am sure similar priorities exist for most of them as well. It is sad that for these schools, putting and keeping an athlete on the field often takes precedence over keeping a student in the classroom.

Turns out that one needs to study for more than just puzzles, logic arguments, and passage structures: You also need to know cursive! Despite having three books, totaling 1,362 pages between them, not one of them mentioned having to write out the following statement in cursive!

 LSAT Certifying Statement

The proctor instructed us to write the certifying statement in cursive, and when finished, look to the front of the room so she would know when to move on to the next set of instructions. At first glance, it did not seem like that big of a deal. But after attempting to write out a few words, panic set in when I realized that I forgot how to write in cursive!

I thought about questioning authority as to why we needed to write in cursive. I thought about sharing with the group that I had forgotten this third grade skill. But instead, I kept my head down and tried to relight those burned out synapses as fast as I could. About half way through the statement, I could sense that all writing in the room had ceased. I could feel attention shifting to me. Nonetheless, I kept my focus and plowed ahead. After a few more moments of silence, she moved to the next set of instructions without me. When it was all said and done, I had produced a paragraph that looked like it had been penned by a mentally challenged elementary kid. I could not even make it all fit in the box!

I quit writing in cursive not long after I learned it. The reason for that is two part: 1) Anything that I hand write is usually for me to read (i.e. notes); and I have trouble reading my own cursive handwriting. 2) Anything that I write, for anyone besides me, is nearly always typed. For these reasons, I have been writing exclusively in print and typeface for more than a decade. However, it was not so much that I could not actually write in cursive, it was just really hard. Imagine someone that is not ambidextrous trying to write out a paragraph using their non-dominant hand. That is what it felt like–slow and labored.

As soon as I got back home, I hit the internet to find out why the certifying statement had to be written in cursive, and whether or not I was alone in my inability to formulate this particular esoteric scrawl. While I never found a satisfying answer as to why, I did run into a dissonance abating report from the College Board. It reported that of the almost 1.5 million students completing the first ever essay section on the SAT in 2006, only 15 percent of them utilized cursive. The other 85 percent printed. So, maybe I am not alone?

I get a certain enigmatic aesthetical pleasure by methodically printing very ossified, invariate, and often rectilinear letters. Personally, I believe that cursive should be relegated solely to fancy dinner menus, wedding invitations, and other formal event informational brochures, as it serves no uniquely practical or functional purpose. It is already known fact that cursive takes readers longer to read and is not actually faster to write.[1,2] Besides, having to read it for anything more, gives me a headache, seeing as everything in the digital age comes in print. Moreover, I am very ardent in the belief that cursive should only be undertaken by calligraphers and those displaying the utmost technically proficient penmanship. Nothing irritates me more than having to read a page full of sloppy cursive. If only I were king…

Here is to hopefully never having to do it again: ¡Muerte a cursive! ¡Viva la print!

References:

1) Cursive vs. Printing: Is One Better Than the Other?

2) Graham, Steve, Naomi Weintraub, and Virginia W. Berninger. 1998. The Relationship Between Handwriting Style and Legibility. Journal of Educational Research 91 (5):7