Posted on 05/27/2008 6:45:39 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Wake Forest University will no longer require applicants to take the SAT and ACT exams, boosting a movement to lessen the importance of standardized tests in college admissions.
The Winston-Salem school, which admitted just 38 percent of its 9,000 applicants for this fall, is the latest in a string of colleges that no longer require standardized tests. Officials there say the scores are not the best predictor of academic potential.
Most other colleges that have dropped standardized testing have not been highly selective and accept most, if not all, qualified applicants. The most prominent and selective schools have generally continued to use the tests as one of several admissions criteria.
The announcement Tuesday from Wake Forest — on the heels of a similar decision this month by Smith College in Massachusetts — adds two more selective colleges to the movement.
Wake Forest said it was the first of the top 30 schools in the annual U.S. News & World Report college rankings to drop the tests.
Director of Admissions Martha Allman said she has seen students at the top of their class who excelled but did poorly on the SAT and didn't get in. The school, which did away with the testing requirement while examining how to diversify the student population, will instead place more emphasis on personal interviews, academics and extracurricular activities. Students can still have their test scores considered if they want.
"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," Allman said. "And it's not fair, especially if the studies are showing it's not a good predictor."
Alana Klein, a spokeswoman for the College Board, which owns the SAT, said there is not a trend toward schools doing away with standardized tests. She said smaller schools are opting not to weigh SAT or ACT scores because they can take a more holistic approach to admissions, not because of concerns that, as some critics contend, minority and low-income students are at a disadvantage.
"The SAT is a fair test," she said.
Standardized tests are often the only way colleges can directly measure students from different schools, and large universities — which may have tens of thousands of applications — rely on them.
But critics contend the exams are too stressful and keep some students from showing their real potential. Smith, a highly ranked liberal arts college for women with a strong reputation for enrolling low-income students, said its decision was prompted by a correlation between test performance and race and household income.
Despite the latest announcements, independent college admissions consultant Steven Roy Goodman said it is unlikely that most highly selective colleges will stop using standardized tests.
"As much as many people in the university world support the movement toward optional testing, it's very difficult to assess the quality of courses in high schools around the country and around the world, and to reconcile the different grading systems, and to take into account the grade inflation that we've seen in many schools throughout the United States," he said.
Larger universities, like the University of Wisconsin-Madison, will continue to use standardized tests. Director of Admissions Rob Seltzer said they make a difference in predicting academic success and there's been no discussion about making them optional.
"They are not the most important factor," Seltzer said. "They have some weight in the admissions process, but the academic record, the transcript, is much more important."
Smith College of MA also dropped the SAT requirements.
College is only about tuition fees anyway. As long as you can fog a mirror and have the money, you’re in.
no surprise Belmont college just surpassed Wake Forest in Southern private college ratings.
and David Lipscomb is gaining
Next time you are at Walmart, just watch the cashier when you check out. That will tell you the tale!
This is so schools can keep their admissions more ‘objective’ and can do their own social engineering quotas and avoid any reverse discrimination charges. In the long run all it will do is admit poorer quality students who will be harmed more than helped by the policy because they will not be able to excel and may drop out instead of going to a school where they could succeed.
If your standards are too high.. lower your standards!
Got to get those diverse students to get government money.
As if years later anybody ever asks about your SAT score.
You either can do the job or you can’t do the job.
These kids today can’t even count.
I really don't see how this comment is appropriate since Wake admits less than half the people who apply.
Minority kids dont do well on the SAT so there must be something wrong with the test. I look forward to a move diverse student population. How about admitting a percentage of those flunking classes in high school, or those with a criminal record, or dont forget those who dropped out of high school, save some slots for them too.
That’s a 50% acceptance rate and it certainly doesn’t sound too selective to me.
Those that serve in Iraq and Afghanistan count, but those that worship nObama are no count!
But at least the SAT scores guaranteed a scholastic minimum for college entrance. Future employers could, at the very least, feel confidant in this minimum scholastic ability when interviewing potential employees.
The fact that some students do well despite scoring low on SATs could very possibly be an indication of bias by instructors rather than failure of the SAT.
New requirement test:
Are you a minority?
Are you a woman?
Do you feel you’re getting screwed in Whitey’s society?
Welcome aboard.
“Yep! Today a college diploma is a receipt for tuition paid.”
Probably not a fair assessment with Wake. They’re known for having a pretty brutal curriculum and most definitely not for grade inflation.
And that in a school filled with a pretty intelligent group of kids. Dropping this test, however, is no doubt a mistake and a lowering of standards.
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