Local Colleges Move Away From SATs | Assumption the latest to drop standardized tests
The SATs, long a rite of passage for all college applicants, may not be going the way of the dinosaur, but its importance is clearly diminishing as a factor in college admissions.
WPI, Holy Cross and Assumption are three local private colleges that no longer require applicants to take the SATs as part of the admissions process. One reason for the change is straightforward: studies found that the test was simply not a good indicator of a student’s success in college. State colleges and universities still require the SAT, but the test is not given the weight it once was.
“I think we really came at it from two different angles,” said Edward Connor, director of admissions at WPI, which made the SATs optional for the 2008 incoming class. “The SAT was not proving to be the greatest indicator for the ability to succeed [in college] and the curriculum here is project-based, with lots of teamwork and hands-on work. The SATs are not a good indicator for a student’s ability to succeed in that sort of environment.”
Broadened Applicant Pool
WPI, the first nationally known technical school to fall in line with what has become a trend at more than 800 colleges and universities nationwide, has made the change to its admissions policy part of a five-year pilot program. Connor is one who hopes the program remains in place.
“We saw a number of students take advantage of [the new policy],” said Connor, who noted that “a couple hundred” students did not submit SAT scores, even with the announcement of the 2008 change coming fairly late in the application cycle. He expects that number will increase, as will the size and diversity of the applicant pool in the upcoming years.
“The exciting thing about this is you get an opportunity to know the students a bit better,” said Connor. “We are seeing great supplemental material from many of our applicants, which is kind of an unintended positive of this.”
While WPI’s change may be temporary, Assumption and Holy Cross made a permanent decision to drop the SATs as a requirement. Holy Cross made the move in 2005; Assumption followed suit and will institute the change for the 2010 class.
Holy Cross dropped the SATs the same year the SATs themselves were considering a change in the format of the test.
“It seemed like the perfect time to break away from the testing requirement,” said Ann McDermott, director of admissions for Holy Cross. The better focus is on a student’s day-to-day work, how well they do in high school, and what subjects they are studying, said McDermott.
“It should be about them making good choices, not them starting to get frenzied about taking a test,” McDermott said.
With the decision to drop the SAT requirement for entrance, Holy Cross is “now having conversations with students who wouldn’t have considered” the school before, said McDermott. Like WPI’s applicant pool, Holy Cross’s pool has increased in size and grown more diverse, geographically and otherwise, containing more first generation students and students for whom English is a second language.
Assumption College’s Dean of Admissions Kathleen Murphy agrees that the admissions process is far better served by a “more holistic approach,” which is the approach Assumption has always taken. “We never really looked at the SATs as a primary indicator,” said Murphy. “The advantage it gives you is as a standard, as a marker, but we’ve always looked at it as secondary.” Still, Assumption will monitor the program as it moves forward, in the event there are unforeseen impacts.
In 1995, the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education made some changes to its admissions process, focusing more on academic choices and performance in high school and less on the SAT.
While applicants must still submit SAT or ACT scores, a student with at least a 3.0 grade point average does not need to hit the minimum SAT score to gain admission, said Deputy Commissioner Aundrea Kelley of the Department of Higher Education. (The ACT is a standardized test administered to high school students who live in other parts of the country.) For students who do not graduate with a 3.0 GPA, they may still gain admission, but only if they score the SAT minimum.
“Studies have shown that doing well in rigorous college preparatory courses is a strong predictor for success in college,” said Kelley, also noting that because the SAT sliding scale has proven successful, the state has no plans at this time to make the SATs optional.
Ellen O’Connor is a freelance writer based in Worcester.
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