Wealthy Kids Have A Huge Advantage On The SAT

The wealthier a student's family, the better they will likely do on the SAT college admissions test, according to new data from students who took the exam in the past year.

We saw these calculations and charts - compiled by the National Center for Fair & Open Testing, using data from College Board - at The Wall Street Journal, which reports that "the SAT is just another area in American life where economic inequality results in much more than just disparate incomes."

Students whose parents made more than $200,ooo - the highest income bracket - on average scored 1722 out of 2400, almost 400 points higher than students from the lowest income bracket, who scored 1324 on average.

"Given the widespread use of the SAT in college admissions, the implications are obvious: Not only are the wealthiest families best equipped to pay for college, their kids on average are more likely to post the sort of scores that make admissions easy," according to The Journal.

This chart shows the average scores on each section of the test - plus the combined score of the three sections - by parental income:

As you can see, the average SAT score rises in each income bracket.

And here is the score difference above and below the national average for families of various incomes:

The average SAT score for the Class of 2014 was 1497 out of 2400.