[Abstract] Most colleges and universities emphasize identifying smartness much more than developing smartness. This value is made explicit in the many influential rankings of colleges and universities, in which elitist schools who recruit students with high SAT scores, grade point averages, and class rankings are declared "better" than other schools. The pursuit of high academic rankings (a) often is accompanied by a disdain for underprepared students who lower a school's ranking and (b) often contradicts the alleged desire to promote educational opportunities for groups of students who are placed at a strong disadvantage by factors such as SAT scores.
