skip to main content skip to footer

The Relationship Between Scores on the Scholastic Aptitude Test and Certain Post-College Activities of Phi Beta Kappa Members of the Yale Classes of 1931-1950

Author(s):
Coffman, William E.; Mahoney, Margaret H.
Publication Year:
1967
Report Number:
RM-67-18
Source:
ETS Research Memorandum
Document Type:
Report
Page Count:
18
Subject/Key Words:
Careers, Correlation, Followup Studies, College Graduates, Phi Beta Kappa, Predictor Variables, Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT)

Abstract

The impetus for the study reported here was the offer of Dr. Albert Beecher Crawford, Editor of the Men of Yale Series, to make available to the College Board and Educational Testing Service a duplicate deck of cards containing data on the post-college activities of members of Phi Beta Kappa at Yale University, most of whom had taken the Scholastic Aptitude Test at the time they applied for admission to Yale. The Scholastic Aptitude Test Scores of most candidates are available in microfilm files at ETS, and it seemed feasible to look up the scores and to examine the relationships between the test scores and the subsequent career data collected by Dr. Crawford. There has been no intention to do more than to describe the relationship. In any "follow-back" study of this sort there are so many uncontrolled variables that any attempt to "explain" the relationships or generalize beyond the particular sample is likely to lead to invalid conclusions. On the other hand, such "facts" as are set forth may prove instructive, if only to raise questions worthy of systematic study in more carefully controlled studies in the future. In addition, the study was frankly exploratory. There was no intention to exhaust the data. Rather, the investigators set out to examine the data within a limited budget and to report their findings with a minimum of data analysis.

Read More