After a little while of defending the “win-win” integrity of providing financial incentives for their freshmen to retake the SAT, Baylor University has dropped the program:

After several days in which educators and admissions experts nationally lambasted its plan to pay accepted applicants to raise their SAT scores (and presumably the institution’s ranking in U.S. News & World Report), Baylor is admitting a mistake.

Lori Fogleman, a spokeswoman, said in an interview Thursday night that the university “goofed” by offering the cash incentives. “We have heard the criticism,” she said. “It just had the appearance of impropriety. It raised unnecessary questions.”

[ . . . ]

Because Baylor adopted the program after a drop in its SAT average — and amid a concerted effort to raise its U.S. News rankings — the payments were widely criticized as an attempt to game the system. Critics said that Baylor was becoming the “poster child for SAT misuse,” and faculty and students said that they were embarrassed by the initiative.

From Inside Higher Ed.