More Colleges Than Ever Have Test-Optional Admissions Policies (theconversation.com)

Back in the 1980s, Bates College and Bowdoin College were nearly the only liberal arts colleges not to require applicants to submit SAT or ACT test scores. On Jan. 10, FairTest, a Boston-based organization that has been pushing back against America's testing regime since 1985, announced that the number of colleges that are test-optional has now surpassed 1,000. From a report: This milestone means that more than one-third of America's four-year nonprofit colleges now reject the idea that a test score should strongly determine a student's future. The ranks of test-optional institutions include hundreds of prestigious private institutions, such as George Washington, New York University, Wesleyan University and Wake Forest University. The list also includes hundreds of public universities, such as George Mason, San Francisco State and Old Dominion.

Comments

Yay, snowflake college

[TimothyHollins]

Perhaps the next step should be skipping grades? They might indicate that we aren't all equally precious otherwise.

What does a college care ?

[Alain Williams]

Unless they are one of the top tier where their reputations depend on their alumnis having glittering careers, many colleges just want to have many students - as the fees will pay the bills. So accepting anyone who's father can afford to pay or who can raise a student loan is good: more students.

Re:I'll buy this

[RightwingNutjob]

Yeah, and keep going down that road and you won't even need to be literate to get a medical degree or a PE license. How's the prospect of being operated on a by surgeon who didn't opt to take the medical license exam but nontheless feels his ability to make a positive contribution shouldn't be predicated on a single number sound to you? Wanna live in a building designed by a person who's grasp of calculus isn't necessarily quantified, but who definitely has the right aura?

Nonsense, nonsense, nonsense. All of it.

George Washington

[110010001000]

GW tuition is over $53,000 a year. They will take anyone's money. These institutions are now just money making empires.

Re:Funny, when they choose to drop the tests.

[SlaveToTheGrind]

The colleges want to limit Asian Americans to less than 1% of admissions. Finding the right legal way to do that is the long term project.

I'd love to see one shred of objective evidence to support that -- if you have one.

A Few Problems...

[sycodon]

First, there is no such thing as a "non-profit" college. They ALL profit. Some are just more honest about where the money goes.

Second, Not relying on tests means relying on transcripts. Setting aside the stupid Pass/No Pass thing, relying on letter grades, however they are derived, is questionable since the grades are so variable. An A in one school could be equivalent to a C in another. Or, in the case of AP classes, an A in a regular class could be a C in an AP class.

Lastly, excluding any kind of objective or semi-objective measurements leaves only one criteria, the completely subjective measurement derived from essays, interviews, etc. That is how you get mostly illiterate morons accepted over potential geniuses because they interviewed better or expressed some form of SJW sentiments that impresses the interviewer.

What we have here is the gradual degradation of the US higher Education system due to the lessor of its graduates gravitating towards education where they implement their lessor standards.

Re:A Few Problems...

[Stephan Schulz]

Second, Not relying on tests means relying on transcripts. Setting aside the stupid Pass/No Pass thing, relying on letter grades, however they are derived, is questionable since the grades are so variable. An A in one school could be equivalent to a C in another. Or, in the case of AP classes, an A in a regular class could be a C in an AP class.

While grades may be bad at measuring absolute achievement, they may be better at measuring aptitude. If you get an A from a "bad" school, you may know less than someone with an A, or even a C from a better school. But you probably belong to the best pupils in your school - that you were not able to learn more may be more a problem of the school, not of you ability to learn and think. So in a different environment, you may be able to flourish and catch up.

As the original article states: high school grades are a better predictor of success in university than SAT scores.

What we have here is the gradual degradation of the US higher Education system due to the lessor of its graduates gravitating towards education where they implement their lessor standards.(emphasis mine)

I assume that is involuntary irony?

Re: Gaslighting BS

[Anonymous Coward]

Huh? Wow, go to the bathroom and properly release all your crap.

Re:I'll buy this

[PopeRatzo]

Yeah, and keep going down that road and you won't even need to be literate to get a medical degree or a PE license.

Or to be president.

Re:Useful for most students

[butchersong]

The top third of today's classes are really the only ones that belong in college anyway. SAT/ACT type test taking never correlated to effort for me but if someone is willing to apply themselves to the degree that they are able to significantly raise their SAT score even though they may not have the natural aptitude... that's another group that should be in college.

Honestly, how can someone be said to be ready for college if they haven't even bothered to take the standard test? What is so amazing about them? Obviously not their work ethic or intelligence... or they would have taken the test.

How about the opposite?

[T.E.D.]

My kids, for some reason I can't quite figure out, flat out can't bring themselves to do homework. They'll always ace tests though. Something to do with their particular flavor of ADHD, I'm told. Most "solutions" to this problem involve extreme parental intervention, which aren't practical when you have more than one of them at once, and flat out doesn't work when the young person goes off to college in another state.

So what I really need are colleges that do the opposite - Test-only policies.