What was your score?

If SAT scores are any indication, freshmen at IU are getting smarter every year.\nStudies calculate averages differently, but mean scores provided by the University have risen 18 points since 2001, even though IU students are still near the bottom of the Big Ten, and scores are lower than the national average.\nIn 2001, IU students averaged 1031 on the SAT. The national SAT score was 1050. In 2005, the national average increased to 1054 -- a four-point increase from 2001. IU's SAT average increased 18 points to 1049 in the same years, and the incoming freshmen's SAT scores are rising at a faster rate than at other schools. \nDespite this rise, administrators, trustees, students and faculty have begun to debate IU's admission standards, with some believing they are too low and should be raised.\nFor the state of Indiana, SAT scores rose cumulatively from an average of 1007 in 2004 to 1012 in 2005.\nFor its part, IU places more emphasis on high school grades and class rank than SAT scores, said Mary Ellen Anderson, IU director of admissions. The University has no minimum SAT score for admission to IU-Bloomington, but administrators are looking into the possibility of instituting a minimum score. However, no number has been decided upon, she said.\nRachel Boon, a research analyst in the office of the IUB chancellor, said this rise is a positive for the University, because it takes a lot of work to raise an entire average in only three years. \n"Every 10 points we have to fight for," she said. \nThis trend suggests that test takers are more prepared for the SAT, Boon said. A variety of factors cause this change.\n"It is a combination of student preparation, admissions strategies and financial aid strategies that may cause these scores to rise," Boon said. \nOthers agree that outside factors can cause a student's SAT average to increase. The precursor for the SAT, the Preparatory Scholastic Aptitude Test, provides, among other things, national merit scholarships, which might help a student financially go to college. \n"Decades ago, there were people going to paid preparatory classes in order to prepare for graduate level courses by taking the (Medical College Admissions Test) and the (Graduate Record Exam,)" said Kevin Cane, a 2005 IU graduate. "Now people are doing so for the (American College Test,) PSAT and SAT. If you want to be competitive, you should take those classes."\nOther universities across Indiana are contending with the same SAT pressures IU currently faces. Ball State University students have a lower average SAT score than IU students. Their administration focuses more on SAT scores than IU, but they don't use those scores as the primary way of determining a student's eligibility to go to college, said Larry Waters, dean of admissions and enrollment services at Ball State. \nWaters said Ball State also looks at the strength of a student's high school classes and the grades a student receives in those courses. There is also a belief that there is a correlation between a student's high school transcript and their SAT scores, Waters said.\n"Students who have a stronger academic curriculum usually receive better SAT scores," he said.\nWaters said like IU and a lot of other universities nationwide, Ball State does not have a minimum SAT score. Ball State likes to look at potential students separately, but says there might be some concerns regarding unusually low scores. \n"Anything below a 900 should be considered problematic," Waters said.\nThose who score high on the SAT could be attributed to the type of lifestyle and family background that they all have, said George Kuh a chancellor professor for higher education and director for the center of postsecondary research. The type of environment someone might live in can either positively or negatively affect the type of test taker that people may become. \n"The SAT has limitations, when you know what it reflects, you are less enamored with it. The SAT represent family advantages, which is a problem that we need to understand as scores correlate with family income," Kuh said.\nOverall, experts feel thought the SAT can be used as a barometer to accept a student into IU, it does not reflect a student's ability on a university-educated level. \n"This SAT thing is problematic as it provides only a small amount of prediction power as it does not determine how well a student does in college," Kuh said.