College Board Introduces ‘Adversity Score’ to Control for Privilege in Admissions

The College Board plans to introduce an “adversity score” that will accompany an applicant’s SAT score in order to give college-admissions officers greater insight into how the applicant’s social and economic privilege may have contributed to their academic performance.

The adversity score, which will be made available to colleges but not the students themselves, will reflect 15 different factors including the crime rate and average income level in a student’s neighborhood, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

The new metric is currently being used by 50 colleges and will likely expand to 150 schools this fall.

“There are a number of amazing students who may have scored less [on the SAT] but have accomplished more,” said David Coleman, chief executive of the College Board. “We can’t sit on our hands and ignore the disparities of wealth reflected in the SAT.”