[yummyfajitas]

Who said anything about lowering the bar for anyone?

Cletus, in the post you replied to.

As for using gender as a predictor in admissions, you'd also need to penalize high scoring women (and reward the low scoring ones). I have no particular objection to any of this.

http://www.overcomingbias.com/2008/08/variance-induce.html

[anthonyb]

Mean SATs, not their variance. I don't think that overcomingbias link is really adding anything to the discussion.

The paper that roguecoder referenced is just pointing out that SAT scores are not a perfect predictor, and adjusting the intake based on gender is probably a good idea if you want to maximise the real effect (academic performance), rather than the predictor (SAT scores).

[yummyfajitas]

The Robin Hanson blog post points out the exact same thing. Why is a positive correction for women useful, but a negative one "not adding anything to the discussion"?

If you want to use gender as a predictor, it could be positive or negative.