Originally Posted by NotSoGifted
I think the 10% admitted based on academics is misleading. Look at the College Board website and look up Harvard's 25th-75th percentile SAT scores. 75th percentile for CR, M and W is 800 - so I guess that others here are saying that only two-fifths of that 75th percentile and above, the kids with 800 on the section, are admitted on academics. Umm...that doesn't make sense.
There's a flaw in this logic. What about all the 800 scorers who don't get admitted? What are the criteria for choosing? When Pinker says "At the admissions end, it’s common knowledge that Harvard selects at most 10 percent (some say 5 percent) of its students on the basis of academic merit." he's not talking about mere SAT scores. He's talking about higher level rarer academic accomplishments. For applicants who don't have such higher level rarer academic accomplishments, even if they have high SAT/ACT scores, some non-academic criteria will be used, and they are not in Pinker's 10 (or 5) percent.

The real point is that it shouldn't be this way. All applicants should be taking tougher tests.