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]