Academic Ability Top Predictor in College Decisions

By Jeanne Ponessa San Diego

Academic achievement plays a stronger role than family income in determining where students who take the SAT will go to college, a national survey has found.

Nearly three-quarters of low-income students who had taken the Scholastic Assessment Test planned to attend a public or private four-year college, according to the poll commissioned by the College Board and released at its national conference here last week.

The survey found that an even higher percentage--88 percent--of low-income students who took the SAT and scored above average on it were headed...