More universities are going SAT-optional
Updated 4/4/2006 9:47 PM
By John Bell, Daily Record via AP
By Laura Bruno, USA TODAY
..."Whether they get 1300 or 1250 doesn't really tell you anything about them as a person or a student," says Ken Himmelman, Bennington dean of admissions. All the attention to numbers "becomes so crazy it's almost a distraction." The addition of these schools represents a growth spurt in the test-optional movement; now, 24 of the top 100 liberal arts colleges, as ranked by U.S. News & World Report, are SAT- and ACT-optional. In total, 730 U.S. colleges don't require SAT or ACT scores, but many are technical or religious schools or those with open admissions policies. For some colleges changing policies, the turning point came when the College Board introduced the new 3-hour, 45-minute SAT with an added essay section. The colleges were troubled by the hysteria among students and also by aggressive marketing of test-prep companies capitalizing on the students' worries about the essay."What this represents is a dissatisfaction or worse with the changes in the SAT," says Robert Schaeffer, spokesman for FairTest, a non-profit organization that says tests are overused. It may be too early to know whether the recent string of scoring errors on the SAT, which affected more than 4,400 students, will lead to more schools opting out, but Schaeffer says he is "getting lots of calls from colleges" that want more information on how such a change might affect enrollments.
full text of this article can be accessed here
TESTING THE WATERS
Liberal arts colleges that have made the SAT and ACT optional include 12 that rank among the top 50 as rated by U.S. News & World Report:
Rank
Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine 6
Middlebury (Vt.) College 8
Hamilton College, Clinton, N.Y. 15
Bates College, Lewiston, Maine 21
Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, Mass. 23
College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, Mass. 32
Connecticut College, New London, Conn. 36
(tie)
Union College, Schenectady, N.Y.
Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y. 39
(tie)
Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, Pa.
Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pa. 45
Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, N.Y. 49
Source: FairTest
By John Bell, Daily Record via AP
By Laura Bruno, USA TODAY
..."Whether they get 1300 or 1250 doesn't really tell you anything about them as a person or a student," says Ken Himmelman, Bennington dean of admissions. All the attention to numbers "becomes so crazy it's almost a distraction." The addition of these schools represents a growth spurt in the test-optional movement; now, 24 of the top 100 liberal arts colleges, as ranked by U.S. News & World Report, are SAT- and ACT-optional. In total, 730 U.S. colleges don't require SAT or ACT scores, but many are technical or religious schools or those with open admissions policies. For some colleges changing policies, the turning point came when the College Board introduced the new 3-hour, 45-minute SAT with an added essay section. The colleges were troubled by the hysteria among students and also by aggressive marketing of test-prep companies capitalizing on the students' worries about the essay."What this represents is a dissatisfaction or worse with the changes in the SAT," says Robert Schaeffer, spokesman for FairTest, a non-profit organization that says tests are overused. It may be too early to know whether the recent string of scoring errors on the SAT, which affected more than 4,400 students, will lead to more schools opting out, but Schaeffer says he is "getting lots of calls from colleges" that want more information on how such a change might affect enrollments.
full text of this article can be accessed here
TESTING THE WATERS
Liberal arts colleges that have made the SAT and ACT optional include 12 that rank among the top 50 as rated by U.S. News & World Report:
Rank
Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine 6
Middlebury (Vt.) College 8
Hamilton College, Clinton, N.Y. 15
Bates College, Lewiston, Maine 21
Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, Mass. 23
College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, Mass. 32
Connecticut College, New London, Conn. 36
(tie)
Union College, Schenectady, N.Y.
Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y. 39
(tie)
Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, Pa.
Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pa. 45
Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, N.Y. 49
Source: FairTest
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