Posted on 07/15/2020 2:18:48 PM PDT by karpov
A number of colleges around the country are temporarily loosening their standardized testing requirements amid the coronavirus pandemic. All eight Ivy League schools will be test-optional for the coming admissions cycle. Initially, this applied only to SAT and ACT exams. But more and more graduate schools have started accepting students without GMAT and GRE scores, as well.
U.S. schools reconsidered their application processes for the upcoming academic year because of the unfavorable consequences of COVID-19 coupled with stricter immigration policies toward foreign students, which adversely affected application rates.
Within the last month, several MBA programs, including the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business and the Wisconsin School of Business, announced that they are willing to accept alternative evidence of strong academic merit instead of the GMAT or GRE.
It is important to be flexible in times of higher volatility and uncertainty caused by the pandemic, when some young people find themselves having to take care of a family member, said Darden School of Business Dean Scott Beardsley. There are more ways to evaluate graduate school applications than to simply rely on standardized test scores, he added.
“We have run analytics to see the best predictors of success, and standardized tests are not the greatest predictor of success in a Darden classroom,” said Beardsley. “We do know that academic rigor and excellence is a predictor. If someone has performed extremely well in undergrad at a good institution that is a predictor.”
Northeastern University has also decided to broaden its admissions criteria and allow prospective students for the 2021–22 academic year to apply with or without any standardized test results.
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...
This American Spectator article approves of dropping the GRE. Are they becoming politically correct?
I took the GMAT without any preparation (and had a 101 fever at the time) and made a good enough grade to be accepted at just about any state school in Texas. You’re right, it is a very dumbed down test. But maybe they have to since so many idiots slip through the cracks at the undergrad level.
Of course - getting rid of an objective test means no standards.
I took the GMAT with just a week of prep study and did well. As long as you’re not a slacker undergrad it’s not much of a hurdle.
“The GRE is not much harder than the SAT, and it’s not something a good college student should need study for.”
Many, many years ago, I took the GRE (verbal/math in the morning and field subject in the afternoon) with a hangover from the previous Friday night. Best scores I ever made on a standardized test.
I have no doubt PC is at play. Also, funds are testing tight, you know. Can’t do much without that money coming in.
Did so as well, blew the test and still got into a reputable PhD/Doctorate program, finished with a 3.97. Admission/Entrance tests are not all they are cracked up to be, just my take.
Took the GRE and was not that difficult, got in good school. The Miller Analogies Test MAT was more worrisome which I also took to get in a masters level program. Continuing lower the bar and standards.
Next no MCATS.
The best predictor of success in an MBA program?
Limbo dancing.
“We must have doctors who ‘look like us’!”
Never mind that 2.5 GPA. They’ll be fine.
Were any of us sober when we took that? :-)
. Maybe it helped us having a hangover :-)
Soon teachers won’t have to anything to get paid. Sweeeet!
I took the GRE. I had a 15 IQ point increase over my SAT results. I was drinking coffee in college, but not in high school. I attribute the increase to caffeine.
Black Doctors Matter.
Already happened.
In all fairness, I've run into many graduate students that weren't all that. They may have been book-smart, but that's where it stopped. Original thinking not so much. I've dealt with a several of these people from the McKinsey, AT Kearney, BCG group and others. And with the private equity folks, there is lots of arrogance, and very little know-how about the companies they buy and claim to 'operate'.
We are now witnessing the dumbest generation. Just think, they are the idiotic future.
More elimination of standards, so schools can focus on the only things that really matter for their admissions: race, gender, sexuality, nationality, native language, ethnicity, minority religion, adversities overcome...
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