A review of the literature indicates that although some authors maintain that scholastic aptitude test scores of disadvantaged students are not clearly associated with college grades (Clark and Plotkin, 1963), most researchers have found the opposite to be true. Some selective institutions emphasize the disadvantaged student's persistence, rather than grades, but persistence alone is not a good measure of academic success. Many other institutions ignore test scores and concentrate on high school grades in admitting disadvantaged applicants, though there is ample evidence that grades alone are not a good predictor of academic success because of the differences in the quality of high school education. Aptitude test scores and high school grades, when used together, usually do predict college grades of disadvantaged students about as well as they do for other students. Therefore, admission to selective colleges should be based substantially on test scores and high school grades, regardless of ethnic or socioeconomic background, and the gap between the academic promise of educationally disadvantaged applicants and the usual minimum demands of the institution should not be greater than explicit provisions for remediation, tutoring, coaching, and perhaps curriculum reform can bridge. (AF)