Top-Rated Colleges Drop SAT Requirement for Admissions Applicants

Published 05 June 08 04:27 PM | Student Loan Girl

Smith College in Massachusetts and Wake Forest University in North Carolina recently joined the nearly 30 percent of all 760 four-year colleges and universities in the country that no longer require the submission of SAT or other standardized test scores as a condition for admission, according to an article on CNN.com (“More Colleges Move Toward Optional SATs,” May 30, 2008).

Although many other institutions have previously gone SAT and ACT-optional, Smith and Wake Forest are the first top-30 schools on U.S. News & World Report’s Top Liberal Arts Colleges list and Top National Universities list, respectively, to drop the requirement. Smith College ranked 17^th on 2008’s top liberal arts colleges list and Wake Forest came in 30^th out of the nation’s top universities.

"We in admissions have put up a barrier to these students to say all of your hard work and all of your academic achievement is being negated by one test, and we don't feel like that is fair," said Martha Allman, Wake Forest’s director of admissions, in the Chicago Tribune (“University to Drop Required ACT, SAT,” May 27, 2008).

Under the new policy, Wake Forest will still allow applicants to submit SAT and ACT scores if they choose, but will start placing more emphasis on personal interviews, academics, and extracurricular activities.

College consultant Jack Maguire, founder of Maguire Associates, believes that schools which become test-optional, like Wake Forest, focus their admissions decisions on what’s really important.

"I do think it improves a school's image," he said. "It shows… they're really interested in increasing diversity."

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Filed under: NextStudent, College Admissions, college, U.S. News & World Report, standardized tests, CNN, college loans, SATs, Chicago Tribune, Maguire Associates, Smith College, best colleges, top collegeses, Martha Allman, Wake Forest University, admissions requirements, Jack Maguire, top universities, liberal arts colleges, admissions exams, SAT test, ACT

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# Paul Lloyd Hemphill said on June 6, 2008 4:27 AM:

Here's More Dishonesty From Colleges: Dropping The SAT Requirement.

A college's ideal press release will suggest their compassion and understanding for the student, particularly for those who "don't test well."

This is pure baloney. In fact, extra virgin.

It's part of the PC mentality that runs amok on college campuses everywhere. Two examples are illustrated in the NY Times article: Smith College & Wake Forest.

From Wake Forest University: “By making the SAT and ACT optional, we hope to broaden the applicant pool and increase access at Wake Forest for groups of students who are currently underrepresented (italics added) at selective universities,” Martha Allman, director of admissions at Wake Forest, told the Times.

Did you get the gobbledigook in this statement? "Underrepresented" what? Are they dummies whose test scores don't meet the school's "extraordinary" standards?

Here's the veiled truth in the Times article that gets missed: "Applicants to both schools will have the option to submit their test scores." Read: we colleges want to use these test scores as a tie-breaker with equally competiting students. Plus, if truth be told, we want to make our decisions easier, our jobs easier, not more difficult.

If colleges could be accused of trying to monopolize dishonesty, this is a validating example.

To demonstrate the success of such a press release, this one was issued 2 years ago by Holy Cross College (Worcester, MA), which asked this question: "Why would a student submit standardized test scores if they don't have to?" Their answer: "A student might decide that his or her test score gives a more competitive picture of academic achievements and potential."

Replace the word "student" with the word "college" in the above statement and you have Truth in Advertising. Like most elitist colleges, Holy Cross likes to engage in feel-good Oprah babble to make us all feel warm and fuzzy about what they represent, or more accurately, how they market their image. After all, these colleges are a business whose strategy is to design, package, market, and sell their image. They've attended expensive marketing seminars where they have learned that perception is reality, and reality is what they want parents and students to perceive, not actually what is.

So far roughly 70% of students who apply to colleges that require no standardized test scores submit their SAT and ACT scores anyway. Talk about being competitive.

If you were working in the admissions office, what would you be thinking of those applications that did NOT come with their SAT scores? "Hmmmm...does this student have something to hide?" How's that for reality?

Bottom Line: If these colleges were honest and forthright, they would require that their applicants not submit their standardized test scores. When the first college in the United States makes non-submittal of test scores a requirement in its application process, watch for this TV news headline: "Hell freezes over. Film at eleven."

The dishonesty of "non-SAT" colleges is astounding, proving once again that marketing their image trumps the truth we parents deserve.

# Bob Schaeffer said on June 6, 2008 6:47 AM: