Baylor University Time Machine: SAT Mulligans

Baylor University is playing with a time machine.

The university doesn't like the lower SAT scores of their students so, after they are admitted, Baylor pays students to retake the SAT so the school won't look so "stupid" in its SAT student rankings:

Baylor University in Waco, Tex., which has a goal of rising to the first tier of national college rankings, last June offered its admitted freshmen a $300 campus bookstore credit to retake the SAT, and $1,000 a year in merit scholarship aid for those who raised their scores by at least 50 points.

Of this year’s freshman class of more than 3,000, 861 students received the bookstore credit and 150 students qualified for the $1,000-a-year merit aid, said John Barry, the university’s vice president for communications and marketing.

“We’re very happy with the way it worked out,” Mr. Barry said in a telephone interview. “The lion’s share of students ended up with the $300 credit they could use in our bookstore. That’s not going to make or break the bank for anybody. But it’s sure been appreciated by our students and parents.”

We find the effort duplicitous and disingenuous and we hope Baylor will throw out their payments to students for SAT mulligans and just accept their students as they are and as they were when they applied to, and were originally accepted by, the university.