Average university students' IQ is no longer above average but merely average

Abstract

Contemporary psychology and neuropsychology texts as well as popular literature cite obsolete data collected 50 to 100 years ago for the proposition that university students' average IQ is in the "above average" range between 115 to 120 IQ points. We demonstrate that university students' IQ has declined over the last 100 years and is now only in the "average" range, near the population average of 100 IQ points. First, whereas in the 1930s, only a few percent of the population was admitted to colleges/universities, today the majority of students graduating from high school do so. Second, successive standardizations of WAIS tests reveal approximately an 8-point IQ drop in the average intelligence of adults with 16 years of education between the WAIS and WAIS-IV tests published in 1955 and 2008, respectively. Third, over the same 100 years, the number of colleges/universities offering undergraduate degrees has increased sharply with some having high admission standards but others allowing anyone to enrol, resulting in large differences in the average IQ of their students. Fourth, our meta-analysis of university students' IQs revealed corresponding drop in average IQs to near 100 IQ points. In turn, these results (as well as large IQ differences between fields) indicate that estimating pre-morbid IQ based on educational attainment is merely speculation and not evidence-based.

Full text

Average university students’ IQ is no longer above average but merely average
Bob Uttl, Toria Violo, & Lacey Gibson
Mount Royal University
Abstract
Contemporary psychology and neuropsychology texts as well as popular lit-
erature cite obsolete data collected 50 to 100 years ago for the proposition
that university students’ average IQ is in the “above average” range between
115 to 120 IQ points. We demonstrate that university students’ IQ has de-
clined over the last 100 years and is now only in the “average” range, near
the population average of 100 IQ points. First, whereas in the 1930s, only
a few percent of the population was admitted to colleges/universities, today
the majority of students graduating from high school do so. Second, succes-
sive standardizations of WAIS tests reveal approximately an 8-point IQ drop
in the average intelligence of adults with 16 years of education between the
WAIS and WAIS-IV tests published in 1955 and 2008, respectively. Third,
over the same 100 years, the number of colleges/universities offering un-
dergraduate degrees has increased sharply with some having high admission
standards but others allowing anyone to enrol, resulting in large differences
in the average IQ of their students. Fourth, our meta-analysis of university
students’ IQs revealed corresponding drop in average IQs to near 100 IQ
points. In turn, these results (as well as large IQ differences between fields)
indicate that estimating pre-morbid IQ based on educational attainment is
merely speculation and not evidence-based.
Gottfredson’s Obsolete Data vs. Reality
Gottfredson (1997, 1998, 2002, 2003) published figures, such as the top fig-
ure below, claiming that ”College Format” have IQs between 113 and 120
(see also Kaufman & Lichtenberger, 2005, Matarazzo, 1972, Jensen, 1980,
Reynolds et al., 1987, Lezak, 2012, Henderson, 2019). However, the idea of
undergraduate students having above average intelligence is false, and based
on obsolete data with no applicability to today. An examination of Wech-
sler’s normative samples reveal that university students are merely of aver-
age intelligence today (see the bottom figure below) (Chastain & Reynolds,
1984; Longman et al, 2007; Holdnack & Weiss, 2013.
70 75 80 85 90 95 100 105 110 115 120 125 130
WAIS IQ
'College Format' as per Gottfredson (1997, 1998, 2002, 2003)
LIFE CHANCES High Risk Uphill Battle Keeping Up Out Ahead Yours to Lose
CAREER
POTENTIAL
Clerk, teller,
police officer,
machinist, sales
Assembler,
food service,
nurse's aide
Manager,
teacher,
accountant
Attorney,
chemist,
executive
POPULATION % 520 50% 20 5
TRAINING
POTENTIAL
College
Format
Mastery learning,
hands−on
Slow, simple,
supervised
Very explicit
hands−on Written materials,
plus experience Gathers, infers
own information
70 75 80 85 90 95 100 105 110 115 120 125 130
IQ
'College Format' as per Wechsler (1981, 1997, 2008)
Normative Samples
POPULATION % 520 50% 20 5
COLLEGE GRADUATES
16+ YEARS OF EDUCATION
(Middle 95%) WAIS−IV (M = 107.4, SD = 13.9)
WAIS−III (M = 111.6, SD = 13.2)
WAIS−R (M = 115.3, SD = 12.2
SOME COLLEGE
13−15 YEARS OF EDUCATION
(Middle 95%) WAIS−IV (M = 101.4 , SD = 13.1
WAIS−III (M = 103.6, SD = 12.3
WAIS−R (M = 107.4, SD = 11.1
Introduction
What is the average IQ of undergraduate students? Many professors
complain that students are no longer that smart, dumb down the col-
lege/university curricula, and in general, complain that today’s uni-
versity is what high school used to be. Yet, various professional texts
as well as popular magazines continue to maintain that undergraduate
students are above average intelligence, scoring between 115 and 120
IQ points.
Professors are onto something. The idea of undergraduate students
having average IQ in 115 to 120 range is a myth. Today, nearly 70%
of the population has some college/university education and approx-
imately 40% attain university degrees. Having a college degree is
no longer as special as it used to be a century ago. Not surprisingly,
a close examination of normative samples for successive standardia-
tions of WAIS reveal that average IQ of university graduates (i.e., in-
dividuals with 16+ years of education) dropped from 115.3 on WAIS-
R (Wechsler, 1981), to 111.6 on WAIS-III (Wechsler, 1997), to 107.4
on WAIS-IV (Wechsler, 2008) (Canadians with 16+ years of educa-
tion have even lower IQs than Americans – see Longman et al., 2007
analysis of WAIS-III US and Canadian normative samples). Simi-
larly, Wechsler’s normative samples show that IQ of Americans with
some but less than 16 years of college/university education dropped
down to mere 101.4 IQ points. Accordingly, the average WAIS-IV
IQ of undergraduate students in 2007 was somewhere betwen 101.4
and 107.4. Moreover, since the Americans with Disabilities Act of
1990 and Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms of 1982 were
passed, colleges and universities also accept students with learning
disabilities and provide various accommodations for them. In turn,
these students tend to have still lower average IQs. Professors today
teach students with wide range of IQs, from below 70 to above 130,
students who are not apreciably different from general population.
Finally, the vast changes in university education attainemnt has also
led to proliferation of colleges and universities. Today, there are over
6,000 undergraduate institutions in USA and hundreds in Canada.
They differ in selectivity. Whereas many state universities accept
nearly all applicants, some other universities are highly selective and
accept only a few percent of the applicants each year. The average
SAT scores of students accepted to the most selective universities
is several standard deviations above the mean SAT scores of non-
selective universities.
Objectives
The main objectives of our study was to examine how IQ of under-
graduate students has changed on the Wechsler Adult Intelligence
Scales over the last 80 years, since publication of Wechsler-Bellevue
Intelligence Scale (WBIS; Wechsler, 1939).
Method
We searched for all studies reporting average Wechsler (WBIS, WAIS,
WAIS-R, WAIS-III, WAIS-IV) IQ of university students’ samples.
For each study, we coded which version of Wechsler test was used;
extracted available mean IQ data (FSIQ, VIQ, VCI); classified each
sample as normal, learning disabled/referred for learning disability
testing, or other; and coded year of testing or, if not available used
year of publication minus 1 as a proxy for year of testing.
Results
1940 1960 1980 2000 2020
70 80 90 100 110 120 130
Year
Undergraduate Students' IQ
Figure shows a scatterplot of the mean IQ and year of assessment for
the u/g samples (k = 96) (the size of the bubble reflects the size of
each study). The estimated u/g students’ IQ is: 118.4 in 1939, 115.2
in 1955, 110.0 in 1981, 106.8 in 1997, 104.6 in 2008, and 102.0 in
2021.
1940 1960 1980 2000 2020
70 80 90 100 110 120 130
Year
LD/LD−Referred Undergraduate Students' IQ
Figure shows a scatterplot of the mean IQ and year of assessment
for the u/g samples with learning disability (LD) or referred for LD
assessment (LD-Referred) (k = 62) and year of assessment. The mean
IQs of the LD/LD-referred samples ranged from 76.5 to 114.7, and
the estimated IQ is: 102.1 in 1981, 99.6 in 1997, 97.8 in 2008, and
95.8 in 2021.
Conclusions & Implications
Our results confirm decline in mean IQ of undergraduate university students re-
ported in successive standardization of Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale. Today’s
undergraduate students’ IQ is estimated to be mere 102.0.
Undergraduate students are no longer special; they are merely average.
Mean IQs of undergraduate students also vary hugely across institutions, depending
on each institution’s selectivity. Furthermore, GRE and SAT data demonstrate that
IQs also vary hugely by field and subfields of study.
Professors today are teaching students from a very wide range of abilities, ranging
from below 70 to above 130 IQ points, with mean IQs no different from the general
population.
Employers can no longer expect applicants with undergraduate degrees to have
appreciably higher IQs than the general population.
Estimates of pre-morbid IQ based on education attainment are speculations and not
evidence based as these estimates do not take into account (a) large variability in
mean IQs across institutions, (b) large variability of mean IQs across fields and
subfields of study, (c) large variability in IQs of individual students, (d) massive
grade inflation (including directives to professors to minimize awarding D, F, W
grades), and (e) concomitant work deflation (see Uttl, 2021).
Gottfredson ’s (1997, 1998, 2002, 2003) claims that ”College Format” IQs are
somewhere between 113 to 120 are plainly wrong, false, based on hopelessly obso-
lete data sets which have no applicability today, given massive changes in education
over the last 100 years.
Psychologists’ Use of Obsolete Data
Three registrants of the College of Alberta Psychologists – Dr. W, Dr. K, Dr. S
– opined on Ms. T’s intelligence and whether or not Ms. T’s twice assessed (by
Dr. W and Dr. K) average WAIS-IV CDN IQ and cognitive abilities prevented her
from performing her elementary teacher duties. Dr. W opined Ms. T’s average
intelligence and cognitive abilities were too low for her to be a teacher; Dr. K
opined it was not an issue; Dr. S agreed Ms. T was a woman of average intelligence
and cognitive abilities but opined she was mentally disabled, cognitively impaired,
and thus, prevented from performing her teaching duties. Relying on Dr. W and Dr.
S, Ms. T’s employer dismissed her as mentally disabled, and cognitively impaired.
Years later, in 2021, Dr. W and S issued further expert reports on Ms. T in ongoing
legal proceedings. Both Dr. W and S included in their reports a version of Got-
tfredson’s figure (see on the left) pegging the ”College Format” as having IQs 112
to 120 and teachers having an IQ of 112, and both argued that Ms. T’s average IQ
was so low as to be in the bottom 1% or 2% of teachers.
Dr. W and S made many errors but two are relevant here: First, they relied on Got-
tfredson’s figure to claim that the ”college format” is of above average intelligence,
ranging from 112 to 120. However, WAIS-R/WAIS-III/WAIS-IV normative sam-
ples show that that is not the case, that IQ of university graduates dropped down
to being merely average (see the figure on the left). Second, they relied on Got-
tfredson’s figure to claim that teachers have IQ of 112. However, this 112 is WAIS
(Wechsler, 1955) IQ. Adjusted for Flynn Effect, Gottfredson WAIS (1955) FSIQ of
112 corresponds to WAIS-IV (2008) FSIQ 96.1.
Dr. W and S never mentioned the existence of Flynn Effect and the resulting need to
adjust the obsolete data for 0.3 IQ points/year, nor massive changes in educational
attainment of US and Canadian populations over the last 100 years resulting in
university students having merely average rather than above average mean IQ.
Email: uttlbob@gmail.com
Presented at Canadian Psychological Association (2022, June)