How Does the New SAT Predict Academic Achievement in College? 1 Christopher M. Cornwell 2 David B. Mustard 3 Jessica Van Parys 4 Working Paper Last Modified: 6-25-2008 Abstract In 2006, the College Board substantively altered the format and content of its SAT Test. Parts of the existing verbal (SATV) and math (SATM) portions of the test were changed, and a new writing (SATW) section was added. No academic research exists on the extent to which the new SAT generally, and the SATW specifically, relates to student performance in college. Thus, admissions offices of many higher educational institutions have disregarded the SATW scores in their admission decisions. By examining how the revised SAT affects a number of college performance outcomes, this study fills the gap in the academic literature and also provides evidence for formulating admissions policies. This study uses data for over 4,300 first-year students at the University of Georgia who were in the first cohort of students to take the revised SAT and complete a year of higher education. The data include every college class students took and their corresponding grades. Our regressions control for personal characteristics (race, gender, and parental education), high school academic achievement (HS GPA and AP credits) and high school fixed effects. We have three central conclusions. First, SATW scores favorably influence many collegiate academic outcomes. With each 100-point increase in SATW scores, students earn, on average, 0.07-points higher first-year GPAs and 0.18-points higher GPAs in freshman English courses; they also enroll in and earn 0.44 and 0.54 more credit hours, respectively. Conversely, these students withdraw from 0.2 fewer credit hours and are three percent less likely to lose the HOPE Scholarship. Second, the SATW scores are consistently more effective than SAT verbal and math scores at predicting academic achievement. Third, the effect of the new SATW largely subsumes the effect of SATV. 1 We thank the University of Georgia Registrar, Admissions Office, Office of Financial Aid, and Institutional Research and Planning for making their data available to us. We also thank Dale Ballou, Joseph Soares, and the participants at the annual meeting of the American Educational Finance Association for their constructive comments. 2 Christopher M. Cornwell, Department of Economics and Senior Fellow at the Institute of Higher Education, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30622. Email: cornwl@terry.uga.edu. Phone: 706-542-3670. 3 David B. Mustard, Department of Economics and Senior Fellow at the Institute of Higher Education, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30622 and the Institute for the Study of Labor. Email: mustard@terry.uga.edu. Phone: 706- 542-3624. 4 Jessica Van Parys. Department of Economics, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30622. Email: jnvp929@uga.edu. Phone: 770-862-3287.