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Test Scores Galore: Asians Immigrants Still Overwhelming Blacks On SATs

Steve Sailer

09/14/2023

At the data-intense Human Varieties blog, Chuck sums up average SAT or ACT score submitted to the Common App in 2021. Like the name says, the Common App is the most common way to apply to college online (with 900+ colleges accepting applications submitted vias the Common App), so the sample sizes are large: Chuck says over 1 million applicants per year.

Like the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) database of 10-year-olds (for which I graphed Chuck’s findings of average IQ by ethnicity at Taki’s), the Common App pries deeply into applicants, so Chuck can come up with average SAT/ACT scores (on the SAT’s more famous 400 to 1600 scale) for all sorts of detailed ethnicities:

Ethnic N Submits SAT/ACT Avg GPA IQ-metric (White=100)
White
Average 570,400 53% 1278 92 100.0
Two+ Provided 17,640 52% 1310 93 102.4
Europe 464,670 55% 1287 93 100.7
Middle East 22,720 39% 1236 90 96.9
None Provided 39,580 43% 1206 91 94.6
Other 25,800 35% 1159 88 91.1
African American
Average 140,010 36% 1108 85 87.2
Africa 13,840 34% 1185 87 93.0
Two+ Provided 17,740 39% 1170 87 91.9
None Provided 670 29% 1141 85 89.7
Caribbean 10,610 37% 1116 85 87.8
Other 680 27% 1113 84 87.6
U.S. Af-Am 96,470 35% 1084 84 85.4
Asian
Average 115,490 61% 1382 95 107.8
None Provided 1,600 65% 1438 97 112.0
Korea 10,480 67% 1421 96 110.7
India 32,750 72% 1415 96 110.3
China 24,620 64% 1414 97 110.2
Other East Asia 2,800 59% 1411 95 110.0
Malaysia 240 61% 1380 95 107.6
Two+ Provided 8,520 58% 1376 96 107.3
Japan 1,330 57% 1364 94 106.4
Other South Asia 5,620 45% 1309 92 102.3
Pakistan 5,500 50% 1301 92 101.7
Vietnam 9,090 55% 1284 94 100.5
Philippines 8,100 47% 1262 94 98.8
Other Southeast Asia 4,130 44% 1261 92 98.7
Cambodia 700 36% 1216 92 95.4
Pacific Islander
Group Average 1,770 32% 1181 88 92.7
None Provided 100 36% 1246 91 97.6
Guam 220 34% 1233 91 96.6
Other (Excl. Philippines) 570 30% 1204 86 94.5
Two+ Provided 150 28% 1187 87 93.2
Hawaii 420 35% 1180 88 92.6
Samoa 320 33% 1082 88 85.3
American Indian
Average 2,760 36% 1162 87 91.3
OK Citizen Potawatomi 20 29% 1338 90 104.5
OK Choctaw 90 55% 1267 93 99.2
OK Chickasaw 50 52% 1252 90 98.1
OK Muscogee (Creek) Nation 50 59% 1241 91 97.2
OK Cherokee 140 53% 1218 95 95.5
MI Sault Ste. Marie 40 57% 1192 88 93.5
NY Saint Regis 50 16% 1170 86 91.9
None Provided 80 29% 1153 87 90.7
Unenrolled 1,370 34% 1147 86 90.2
Other Enrolled 640 34% 1146 87 90.1
SD Oglala Sioux 20 18% 1123 90 88.3
AZ Navajo 160 29% 1096 89 86.3
NC Eastern Cherokee 40 41% 1079 87 85.1
Two/More Races
Group Average 56,130 50% 1289 92 100.8
Asian & White 25,400 60% 1354 95 105.7
Asian & Pacific Islander 1,020 43% 1278 93 100.0
Asian & American Indian 140 45% 1266 88 99.1
White & Pacific Islander 1,010 48% 1265 92 99.0
White & Native American 4,620 50% 1248 91 97.7
Three or More Races 3,610 41% 1241 90 97.2
Asian & African Am. 2,680 43% 1224 90 96.0
White & African Am. 15,680 40% 1192 88 93.5
African Am. & Pacific Isl. 40 19% 1118 83 88.0
Native Am. & Pacific Isl. 1,540 31% 1095 84 86.2
African Am. & Native Am. 380 34% 1093 84 86.1
Hispanic (Region)
Group Average 194,060 37% 1195 89 93.8
Spain 4,950 48% 1284 92 100.4
South America 24,800 46% 1247 91 97.7
Cuba 6,860 61% 1236 92 96.9
Two+ Provided 28,730 41% 1211 90 94.9
Mexico 70,270 32% 1170 89 91.9
Central America 17,400 32% 1168 89 91.8
Puerto Rico 22,540 37% 1168 87 91.7
None Provided 1,850 29% 1161 87 91.2
Other 16,670 30% 1152 87 90.5
Hispanic (Races)
Group Average 194,060 37% 1195 89 93.8
Asian 3,290 43% 1277 92 99.9
Two+ Provided 9,750 43% 1235 90 96.7
White 96,690 45% 1219 90 95.6
Hispanic or Latinx Only 60,870 27% 1146 88 90.1
American Indian 4,740 29% 1133 87 89.1
African American 17,740 29% 1116 85 87.8
Pacific Islander 980 25% 1097 85 86.4

The rank order of average scores is quite similar to the ABCD’s IQ test averages for 10-year-olds.

But the absolute averages are highly inflated (e.g., the white average is 1278 on the SAT’s 400 to 1600 scale). The idea behind the SAT is for the mean to be 1000 with a standard deviation of 200. This inflation is due to a number of reasons, most notably this data is from 2021 and most colleges made submitting test scores optional for pandemic/racial reckoning reasons.

The Submits column shows that only 53% of applications were accompanied by test scores among whites (1278 average), 36% among blacks (1108), 61% among Asians (1382), and 37% among Hispanics (1195). Presumably, applicants who chose not to submit their test scores did worse on average than those who chose to submit their test scores. So the racial gaps would likely be even larger if we knew everybody’s tests scores.

By the way, the IQ-Metric column does not represent actual IQ scores: an SAT of 1278 would be considerably higher than 100. They are just doing the standard routine of setting the white average to 100 with a standard deviation of 15.

At Human Varieties back in August, Meng Hu posted a third set of test score numbers — the feds’ National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS). In 2016 and 2020, the researchers asked over 100,000 undergrads some questions about their finances and also obtained their SAT/ACT scores. This is different from Common App data above in that it’s only scores from people who are attending college. Meng Hu converted the SAT/ACT data to the usual IQ-Metric scale with the white average at 100 and got … pretty much the same rank order of results as the Common App SAT/ACT scores and the same as the ABCD got on the NIH Cognitive Test Toolbox given to 10,000 ten-year-olds.

NPSAS SAT ABCD IQ
IQ-metric N-est. NIH-IQ N

SAT-ABCD IQ Diff
White & Asian Indian 109.4 323 109.6 44 -0.2
Chinese 108.6 2,469 111.3 81 -2.8
White & Chinese 108.2 804 105.2 77 3.0
Korean & Japanese 107.5 1,198 110.1 33 -2.5
Asian Indian 107.1 1,742 102.4 53 4.7
Mixed Asian 104.9 1,208
White & Korean/Japanese 104.3 1,435 106.7 78 -2.4
White & Vietnamese 102.0 295
Vietnamese 101.6 1,473 98.7 24 2.9
White & Filipino 101.0 921 105.1 60 -4.1
White 100.0 131,370 100.0 5,858 0.0
Filipino 98.9 1,447 103.5 51 -4.7
White & Pacific Islander 98.5 1,491 99.7 25 -1.2
Other Asian 98.4 2,137 102.5 52 -4.1
White & Native American 96.7 3,360 95.6 144 1.1
White Cuban 95.8 993 91.7 151 4.1
NH Black & White 94.7 6,033 91.6 418 3.1
White Puerto Rican 94.4 3,415 91.0 133 3.4
Other Hispanic 93.1 10,567 91.3 518 1.9
Pacific Islander 93.0 912 96.1 17 -3.1
Mixed Hispanic 92.3 4,750
White Mexican 91.9 19,596 91.8 775 0.1
Native American 91.5 1,802 89.2 39 2.3
Other Cuban 90.9 170 89.7 30 1.2
Black & Other Puerto R. 90.9 1,273 87.7 90 3.2
NH Black immigrant 90.5 5,824 89.7 110 0.7
Other Mexican 90.4 3,763 88.8 460 1.6
USA Black 89.2 23,974 83.0 1,499 6.2
There are some interesting differences. American blacks come in last in both very different kinds of studies, but the white-black gap is much smaller in terms of college admission test scores among undergrads: the equivalent of 10.8 IQ points vs. 17.0 IQ points among ten-year-olds on the ABCD. One reason is presumably that very low scoring blacks tend not to go to college or stay there long if they do. Another could be that the white sample in the ABCD, which tries to be nationally representative, is skewed a little upscale for whites.

The big problem facing the next generation of African-American youth hoping to earn elite jobs is not White Supremacy or Systemic Racism or whatever people like to talk about, it’s something few mention: that their chances are being overwhelmed by Asian immigrants.

[Comment at Unz.com]

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