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Cole Branch

Mrs. Brower

Adv. Comp

Nov 24, 2020

Oftentimes, money is the great divide between nations, families, and individuals. It puts a

label on people based on wealth; one is either rich, poor, or in between. Along with the wealth

label, there comes many stereotypes associated with each level of wealth. For example, poor

people are generally thought to have made bad life decisions that got them to their low-income

state, or how rich people are born into their wealth. While some of these stereotypes do hold to

be true, it really all comes down to education. Education, at least K-12, is a non-discriminatory

way of getting ahead in life. One doesn’t have to be wealthy to receive a good education; one

doesn’t have to be intelligent to be wealthy. However, what if this wasn’t true? What if one’s

level of intelligence is directly correlated to their family's wealth? As it turns out, the latter has

been proven to be true- at least on standardized test-taking. As high schools around America

place more and more importance on standardized test-taking, most notably the SAT,

demographic trends have started to appear. Students from higher class, wealthier families

perform significantly better on standardized tests than lower class, poorer families.

In America, the only major standardized tests that high school students take are the SAT

and the ACT. The SAT is by far the more popular test with nearly 8 million students taking the

SAT each year, compared to the ACT’s mere 1.8 million. Being that almost every student has a

different background, work ethic, and IQ, there are many variations in scores of the SAT. Some

people apply themselves and score above 1500, and some people go into the test blind and score

below 1000. One’s home life and IQ can play a big role in the scores they receive. However,
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according to researchers, the biggest variable is the student’s family income. According to the

2014 SAT results and a CNCB article, “students whose parents made more than $200,000 a year

scored around a 1714, while students whose parents made less than $20,000 scored around 1326”

(Hess). (Make note that the 2014 SAT used the old point system, with a perfect score being

2400) Not only did wealthier students score higher in general, they specifically had the highest

average score in the reading section. “The biggest SAT gaps were in the reading section. Rich

students got average scores of 570, while poor students got average scores of 433” (Hess). With

there being such a big variation in scores from upper to lower-class families, the question of

“what wealthy families are doing to have their kids score so high” begins to develop. In many

cases, the parent’s income affords children the opportunity to have real life experiences which

enhances their background knowledge. Wealthier students also have more childhood exposure to

educational programs and resources. Poorer students often have more childhood stress, and fewer

options for educational resources like books.

Although wealthy students do score higher on standardized tests, it is not solely a result

of the way they were raised. As it turns out, wealthier students have a slightly different brain

structure than lower-income students. As more research is being done on this topic, a team at the

University of Harvard conducted multiple MRI scans and found that “wealthier students had

thicker brain cortex in areas associated with visual perception and memory” (Bergland). With

having thicker brain cortexes in areas associated with learning, these students are able to hold in

and retain information for longer periods of time and understand and learn subjects faster. In

addition to this, the researchers concluded that “small differences in income were associated with

relatively large differences in surface area in a number of regions of the brain associated with

skills important for academic success” (Bergland). Needless to say, having a larger cortex in
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cognitive regions of the brain certainly helps wealthier students achieve higher marks on

standardized tests. The enhanced visual perception allows these students to learn in ways that

other students are unable to perform. For example, these students could learn specific types of

problems in a math or science class, and then find ways to solve that said problem faster or more

efficiently. Furthermore, the math section of the SAT is full of equations that either need to be

memorized or rearranged to find a variable or number. While most of these equations are given

at the beginning of the test, oftentimes students do not have the time to flip back and forth from

the formula page to the question they’re on. The SAT is a timed test after all. Having better

memory will allow students to memorize the equations generally associated with the SAT and

gives them more time to spend on other questions, therefore giving them a better chance at a

higher score.

In today’s society, it’s no secret that white and Asian families have a higher average

income than families of other races, such as Hispanics or African-Americans. According to the

Federal Reserve’s numbers in 2016, “white families had the highest median family wealth at

$171,000, compared to black and Hispanic families, which had $17,600 and $20,700,

respectively” (Perry).

Along with this, whites and Asians have consistently scored higher on the SAT than any other

racial or ethnic group. The correlation between certain ethnic groups being wealthier and

achieving high education standards is profound. Based on the topics previously discussed, it

makes sense that white and Asian students score higher on standardized tests. They have more

money to spend on practice tests and educational resources, better access to education in their

childhood, and larger brain cortexes. Moreover, on the 2015 SAT, the score gap between whites,

Asians, Hispanics, and African-Americans was astounding. On the 2015 SAT taken for college
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admission, “the average combined score for Whites was 1576; for African Americans, it was

1277” (Hardy). In addition to this, Asians also performed very well on the 2015 SAT compared

to students of Hispanic ethnicity, “Hispanics’ average scores ranged from 1343 to 1347,

depending on their nationality. For Asians, it was 1654” (Hardy). This wasn’t just the case for the

2015 SAT results. Every single year that the SAT has been given, demographic scores have been

similar. Whites and Asians have consistently scored significantly higher than Hispanics and

African-Americans. This situation is often referred to as the achievement gap.

Standardized tests appear to be fair on the surface. Each test taker gets the same amount

of time, the same test, and for the most part, the same testing environment. However, on a

superficial scale, standardized tests can occasionally be unfair. Although college admission

scandals aren’t typically common, a particular scandal from a couple of years ago has brought

light to the inequalities in standardized testing. In the years from 2011 to 2018, an event called

the Varsity Blues scandal occurred. The Varsity Blues scandal consisted of “33 parents that paid

more than $25 million to William Rick Singer from 2011 to 2018” (Hess). Upon payment,

“William used the money to bribe college officials and give students an unfair advantage in

college applications” (Hess). While the students in this scandal didn’t actually achieve the high

testing scores that were sent to colleges, the scandal itself demonstrates the extent of how money

can play a role in standardized testing.

College admissions are typically solidified with a student’s SAT and ACT scores. Most

students believe they need an outstanding score on the SAT to even think about applying to a

specific college or university. Unfortunately, for the most part, this is true. In order to get into

competitive and selective colleges, one needs to have a high SAT and ACT score. However, as

college tuition increases, more and more students start to believe that college in general is not a
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realistic option for them due to the absurdly high tuition prices. In place of lower class, poorer

students, the halls are typically filled with wealthier students and scholarship athletes. In fact, for

every single ivy league school, the majority of its students are white. Oftentimes, students with

lower SAT scores won’t even send their scores to colleges in fear there’s no chance they'll be

accepted. The average required score to be accepted into college has gradually increased due to

the wealthy students with high scores on standardized tests composing the majority of the

application pool. As a result, poor students with lower scores have an extremely hard time being

accepted into their college of choice. While some programs can help poorer students get into

college and make it more affordable, there are few students who can even apply for these

programs. For example, the Pell Grant, a program for low-income students, is not utilized in

some colleges, “at about one-third of the nation’s 500 most selective colleges, less than 20

percent of students receive a Pell Grant” (Carnevale). As poorer students are rejected based on

their lower score, wealthier students with higher scores oftentimes are awarded enrollment into

colleges.

In the end, do wealthy students have privileges that allow them to outperform test taking

peers? In short, the answer is yes. Wealthier students have been and are continuing to dominate

the standardized test taking field. They score significantly higher than poorer students in every

category, have larger brain cortexes, and have unparalleled dominance in college diversity ratios.

Some people may call this unfair or unjust, blaming white privilege as the sole reason for these

demographic trends. However, this does not mean that poorer students from different ethnic

groups can’t prosper and succeed in the realm of education. One doesn’t need to be wealthy to

achieve big things in life; one doesn’t have to be wealthy to be smart. The way one works,

studies, and interacts with other people can define their wealth. To be wealthy doesn’t just mean
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that one has excess amounts of money, it also defines the purity of one’s intentions and actions.

Each person has their own level of wealth, and as a society, we should look past materialistic

wealth and instead look at one's internal wealth.

Works Cited

Hess, Abigail J. “Rich Students Get Better SAT Scores-Here's Why.” CNBC, CNBC, 3 Oct.

2019,

www.cnbc.com/2019/10/03/rich-students-get-better-sat-scores-heres-why.html.

Bergland, Christopher. “Why Do Rich Kids Have Higher Standardized Test Scores?” Psychology

Today, Sussex Publishers, 18 Apr. 2015,

www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-athletes-way/201504/why-do-rich-kids-have-hig

he

r-standardized-test-scores.

Perry, Andre M. “Students Need More than an SAT Adversity Score, They Need a Boost in

Wealth.” Brookings, Brookings, 15 July 2019,

www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2019/05/17/students-need-more-than-an-sat-adversi

ty

-score-they-need-a-boost-in-wealth/.

Hardy, Dan, et al. “How Race and Class Relate to Standardized Tests.”The Notebook, 29 Mar.

2018,

thenotebook.org/articles/2015/11/24/how-race-and-class-relate-to-standardized-tests/. Carnevale,

Anthony P. “Inside Higher Ed.” Dropping Standardized Tests Is Only One Part of

Equalizing College Admissions (Opinion), 3 Aug. 2020,

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www.insidehighered.com/admissions/views/2020/08/03/dropping-standardized-tests-only

-o

ne-part-equalizing-college-admissions.