Student Loan Blog : Smith College

SAT and ACT Tests Not the Best Predictors of College Success, Study Finds

Student Loan Girl — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 21:12:00 GMT

The colleges and universities that use students’ SAT and ACT standardized test scores when making college admissions and financial aid decisions should base these decisions on tests that more closely reflect a student’s high school achievement and understanding of the high school curriculum, according to the recommendations made by a new commission comprised of influential college admissions officials.

The commission, led by William R. Fitzsimmons, Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid at Harvard University, recently completed a yearlong study that questioned the relevancy of SAT and ACT tests for college admissions (“College Panel Calls for Less Focus on SATs,” The New York Times, Sept. 21, 2008).

“It would be much better for the country,” Fitzsimmons says, “to have students focusing on high school courses that, based on evidence, will prepare them well for college and also prepare them well for the real world beyond college, instead of their spending enormous amounts of time trying to game the SAT.”

Admissions officers should rely instead on exams that are closer linked to high school curriculum like the College Board’s Advanced Placement tests and SAT Subject Tests and the International Baccalaureate exams when making admissions decisions, Fitzsimmons says. Unlike the SAT and ACT exams, he argues, these other tests have fewer ties to the billion-dollar test-prep industry.

Test Scores Indicate Students Who Are Well-Off Have An Advantage

Fitzsimmons’ research group, convened by the National Association for College Admission Counseling, found that the nature of standardized testing places less emphasis on students learning their high school curriculum and more emphasis on test preparation — a discrepancy that favors affluent students who can afford test-prep resources.

The commission’s report found that standardized test scores emphasized the socio-economic differences of the SAT’s and ACT’s test-taking population and were reflective of a student’s race and ethnicity, socio-economic class, and their family’s level of educational attainment.

“Society likes to think that the SAT measures people’s ability or merit,” Fitzsimmons says. “But no one in college admissions who visits the range of secondary schools we visit, and goes to the communities we visit … can come away thinking that standardized tests can be a measure of someone’s true worth or ability.”

Testing Companies, Schools Disagree on Report’s Findings

Representatives from the College Board — which administers the SAT exam, taken by 1.6 million high school students this year — and ACT Inc. — which is responsible for the ACT exam, taken by 1.4 million students this year — both disputed the report’s findings. The companies contend that their tests do measure students’ understanding of classroom material, not just their test-preparation skills, according to a Bloomberg article (“Colleges Shouldn’t Rely on SAT, ACT Tests Study Says,” Sept. 22, 2008).

“Hundreds of national research studies show that the SAT is a valid predictor of college success,” the College Board wrote in a statement. “We have long advised that the use of the SAT in the admission process is in combination with high school grades.”

Prior to the report’s recommendations, only 280 four-year schools, including Wake Forest University, Smith College, Bates College, and the University of Wisconsin, had stopped requiring the standardized tests for admissions, and the report calls for more schools to follow suit.

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Colleges and Universities to Subsidize Unpaid Internships

Student Loan Girl — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 22:08:00 GMT

Some small, private schools are beginning to offer internship grants to students who would otherwise have been unable to accept an unpaid or low-paying intern position, according to an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education (“Subsidizing the Internship,” July 18, 2008).

“That’s one of the more important aspects of career assistance that a university can provide a student,” said Mark Oldman, co-founder of Vault, a career-information company. Amid so many unpaid and low- paying internships, he told the Chronicle, “the university can come to the rescue financially.”

Once considered an added bonus to a college degree, internships have now become “a prime form of professional capital” for college students. But being that most internships offer little to no financial compensation, lower-income students are often placed at a disadvantage in the competitive internship field.

Internship-grant programs now being offered by schools across the country will subsidize unpaid or low-paying internships and allow more financially needy students to take advantage of these experience-building opportunities:

Connecticut College awarded up to $3,000 grants to two- thirds, or 285, college seniors
Austin College in Texas gave 54 students $2,300 each
Whitman College in Washington paid 26 students $2,100
Smith College in Massachusetts has pledged financial support for all internship-seeking students, regardless of their financial need

American University in Washington, D.C., while unable to offer direct financial assistance for internships, provides room and board for Native American students who secure internships at federal agencies or private corporations.

Butler University in Indianapolis, Ind., offers on-campus housing at a subsidized rate for summer interns through the Brain Gain program, as well as career counseling for those who participate in the program.

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Top-Rated Colleges Drop SAT Requirement for Admissions Applicants

Student Loan Girl — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 23:27:00 GMT

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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