More Colleges Make The SAT Optional
From the National Center for Fair & Open Testing:
“The U.S. News & World Report ‘Best Colleges 2013′ guide released today ranks 140 undergraduate schools with test-optional or test-flexible admissions policies as among the best in the nation. The list includes 55 of the magazine’s first-tier national liberal arts colleges and 42 of its top 100.
Wake Forest University, Worcester Polytechnic Institute and American University are among the highly ranked national universities, which do not require all or many applicants to submit ACT or SAT scores before admissions decisions are made. Others, such as New York University and, most recently, the University of Rochester, allow students to send in results from any test, including Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate exams.
At the top of the liberal arts college category are such test-optional schools as Bowdoin, Smith, Bates, Holy Cross, Mount Holyoke, Sewanee, Union, Furman and Pitzer. Among regional universities that do not require standardized exam scores, Fairfield, Loyola, Marist, Providence, Ithaca, Rollins, Stetson and Whitworth are all ranked in the top ten from their sections of the country.
‘Many of the most selective schools in the nation are now part of the test-optional admissions movement,’ explained Bob Schaeffer, FairTest’s Public Education Director. ‘Students who do not want to be judged on the basis of their ACT or SAT scores are encouraged to apply by a growing number of top-notch colleges and universities of every type in every region.’” Read more at the FairTest website.
Of course, the SAT is still a huge deal. But for those of us (count me in) who are troubled by the importance placed on one-shot, high-stakes tests, this increasing flexibility on the part of colleges is good news.
It’s not actually one shot. Can take it as many times as you are willing to sit for it.
Good point, Bashir. I meant to contrast SAT and other high-stakes tests with the kind of ongoing and unobtrusive assessment that can give parents and teachers a more complete sense of a student’s abilities.
The SAT is more g-loaded than grades, and it is a better predictor of college performance.