Is this a fair metric for ranking universities?

[MarkWarner08]

The following is a list of the 20 universities with the highest median SAT scores. This ranking looks at students in the top quarter of SAT scorers at each university. 

Harvard 1590
Yale 1590
Princeton 1580
Caltech 1580
MIT 1560
Dartmouth 1550
Stanford 1550
Duke 1540
UChicago 1530
Rice 1530
Brown 1530
WashU 1530
Columbia 1530
UPenn 1520
Northwestern 1520
Notre Dame 1510
Carnegie Mellon 1510
Cornell 1500
Johns Hopkins 1500
Georgetown 1490

Since it's difficult to compare GPAs (different grading curves at different high schools), extracurricular activities,  admission essays, and teacher recommendations,  SAT scores offer researchers the clearest way to compare student bodies.

I think this metric is essential because while the SATs  can be manipulated (e.g., the wealthy have access to tutors and can hire college consultants to steer their children toward the "right" preparation programs), they are also the one way for economic disadvantaged students to stand out in an applicant pool.  Parental wealth affords certain students the resources to pursue extracurricular opportunities which enhance their college transcripts. The inner-city kid who is raised inner a lower-income household is likely more preoccupied with the economic imperative of survival than she is about padding her transcript. The time  she spends working an after-school job can't be leveraged to pursing an after-school activity, thus robbing her of a chance to win an award that would highlight her academic prowess in a certain field.

Furthemore, hile the SAT has been noted for its inherent racist bias (e.g., poor minority students   struggle with understanding reading passages about equestrian matches), universities prepare for this and thus use lower standards for under-represented minorities. A poor African-American from Newark with a 2180 SAT score and a decent GPA is a near-lock for most top universities; a Caucasian student with a similar score would need excellent extracurriculars and glowing recommendations to feel confident about gaining admission to any of the top 20 schools. The African-American students who excel at the SAT (at least compared to their peers)  have been shown to achieve high college grades than legatees, admissions candidates who benefit from a family member graduating from that college.

While it's easy to cast aside SAT scores as a poor indicator of one's academic aptitude, those who disregard SATs should realize that that very test be the one truly uniform standard for determining the strength of a college's student body.

[MarkWarner08]

SATs are a terrible measurement, and the numbers provided are even more problematic as they measure only the top SAT scores (and thus the scores only of the wealthy). This list also severely overstate schools in which mathematics is particularly important (MIT, Caltech, Rice) compared to those which are more concerned with essay-writing ability (something rectified with the new SAT, I've heard).

One shortcoming of the new Writing section of the SAT is that few schools trust it yet. Since the graders have only a minute or so to review each essay (everyone must write about the same topic), some may be unfortunately hurt by the exhaustion of their judges.

I disagree that the list overrates schools like MIT and Caltech, which have students who excel in mistakes. If one assumes that the top students at Caltech scored 800 on their math section, that would leave the median student in the top 25% range with a 780 on the Verbal section, which would still place Caltech above 5/8 of the Ivy League.