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For the past half century, the U.S. school system has functioned as a highly rationalized and vertically integrated mechanism for socializing and sorting students into the existing social and economic structure. As educational hierarchies expanded to increase access to postsecondary education, so reliance on the college entrance examination also expanded, with both meritocratic and stratifying consequences. The initial rise in the use of college entrance exams provided an "objective" mechanism to counteract the widespread discrimination in college admissions processes (Lemann, 2000). However, critics have since exposed such exams, particularly the SAT, as weak predictors of college academic success, particularly for nontraditional students (Sedlacek, 2004); and the lower average scores of African American and Latino students on these exams continue to present daunting obstacles for them, especially in the form of barriers to admission to selective colleges (Hacker, 1992; Hedges & Nowell, 1998; Jencks & Phillips, 1998; Phillips, Brooks-Gunn, Duncan, Klebanov, & Crane, 1998; Steele, 1997). Underrepresented minorities who are lower income are particularly likely to confront such barriers (Bowen & Bok, 1998; Duran, 1994; Kane, 1998; Miller, 1995; Steele & Aronson, 1995; Vars & Bowen, 1998).
Despite the prominence of the SAT and ACT for college admissions, researchers understand relatively little about how college entrance exams influence students' college planning process and their transition into college. This lack of understanding is particularly problematic with regard to our knowledge of the experiences of underrepresented racial minority students, especially African Americans, for whom an aspiration-attainment paradox exists-relatively low degree attainment despite relatively high aspirations. African American students report having higher educational aspirations than their peers of other races, and they apparently put more thought into their college plans than White students (Hossler, Schmidt, & Vesper, 1999). Racial and ethnic gaps in college aspirations have narrowed (Schneider & Stevenson, 1999), and national data reveal that African American and Latino high school graduates enroll in postsecondary education at near parity with White graduates (Adelman, 2003; Rosenbaum, Deil-Amen, & Person, 2006, 6-7).1 However, Adelman (1999, 2006) and Rosenbaum (2001) remind us that high educational goals are prevalent, but not sufficient for bachelor's degree attainment. Despite increased access, racial gaps in college degree completion persist. Being Black is negatively associated with college degree completion (NCES 2003-164), and studies that employ multiple...