From Quora: "Does the UC's decision to not use SAT and ACT encourage parents to send their kids to easy high schools?"

No; of course not. As one person who corrected my answer about MIT admissions put it, MIT keeps detailed records of how students from various secondary schools do at MIT.


There’s no reason to believe any other elite college or university (including any UC school) doesn’t do the same thing. Certainly, some elite prep schools are well-known “feeders” for such schools, and those from undistinguished public or private schools probably have to have better grades than their counterparts at the “feeder” schools. I’m sure all the best colleges have ways of rating students from practically every secondary school in the US (e.g., “Okay, a 99% out of 100% average from Mediocre City Tech is about the same as a 3.0 GPA from Elite Preppy Boarding School…”)


Since SATs aren’t necessarily there to fill out the kid who’s from an non-feeder school (probably a very good reason TO take the SAT if you’re coming from an average public high school), the kids from “easy” high schools will be at a huge disadvantage against “feeder” school kids. So there’s absolutely NO incentive to send your kid to an “easy” school.
​

Also, you have to figure in that “easy” schools are probably pretty lax on discipline, so your kid may be bullied by kids who just aren’t at the elite prep schools (or even good public schools), and that the “halo effect” automatically make kids from elite prep schools look better. Maybe I’ve been reading too many Jonathan Kellerman novels, but how do we know the kid from an elite school didn’t cheat his or her way through school, and is actually a lot dumber and less motivated than the kid with a solid A or B average from a mediocre public school? We don’t, but people will assume the kid from the better school is a better student. Again, that’s a HUGE reason not to send your kid to an “easy” school.

1