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Answers to Common College Admissions Questions

 

Importance of College Entrance Standardized Tests

 

What is your current view on the importance of standardized test scores in the admissions process? Do you think some form of standardized test will always be used in the admissions process? What are some alternatives? Can students overcome a "weak" score?

 

There is agreement that some form of standardized tests will continue to be used by most colleges. And while some colleges put added weight on these scores, applicants should remember that for most schools -- as long as you are in an acceptable range -- there are additional criteria used to evaluate them, including GPA, class rank, high school curriculum rigor, essays, and recommendations.

 

Here are the answers to this question from each member of our panel:

 

Lisa Knodle-Bragiel, Linfield College

Linfield continues to see the importance of standardized test scores as a very important PART of the admission process. As far as will we ALWAYS use some form of the standardized test in the admission process, I can't say "always." I can say that in the foreseeable future, we definitely plan to continue using standardized tests. It is important to know, however, that we do give students options. We recognize, accept and invite the use of both SAT and ACT. We take the highest math and the highest verbal from the SAT. We consider geographic differences (e.g. lower verbal scores from Hawaii) and we consider race and ethnic differences. Hence, can students overcome a weak score? Certainly, but just as stated in question number 2, Linfield may ask for additional documentation (again -- graded essays for low verbal scores, recommendations from English or math teachers, etc.).

 

The great thing about Linfield -- about our commitment to learning and our commitment to a liberal arts environment -- is that we are holistic in our approach. We are holistic in our approach to teaching students about thought, to teaching students about living in a world together and, even in our approach to admitting students to the college. All this talk about the "right fit" in the admission process gets a little distorted sometimes, but Linfield really IS looking for the right fit and if that means going the extra mile in our admission process, we'll do just that. It's a long process, we read applications well into the night, we're on the phone with students more hours than we can count. Is it a cumbersome and tiring process? At times. But, we're not just admitting students, we're admitting students who we want to retain and who we want to succeed. We must uncover all pieces of evidence that point to the potential success of each and every applicant.

 

Note: Each year Linfield conducts various studies on the freshman year academic performance of its first year students compared to their entering academic profile. Consistently we see the combined importance of high school grade point average and board scores (SAT or ACT) as the top significant indicators of first year success at Linfield.

 

Chris Lucier, University of Michigan

They do play a role in determining a student's academic potential, but they can't stand alone. We utilize standardized test scores, in conjunction with the student's GPA and rigor of curriculum, to build a picture of the student academically. The most important parts of this academic picture are the GPA and curriculum.

 

Do I think some form of standardized test will always be used in the admissions process? At this time, yes, I believe they will play a role in the admissions process. With grade inflation and wide differences in curriculum between high schools across the country and the world, standardized tests provide another means to measure the student's preparedness to succeed academically at a selective institution.

 

What are some alternatives to standardized tests? I'm not sure.

 

Can students overcome a "weak" score? Certainly. As stated previously, we focus most of our attention on the student's GPA and rigor of the curriculum.

 

Marc Camille, Xavier University

Standardized test scores are simply one of the factors we use in evaluating applicants. Quite frankly, in order of importance I'd list them behind rigor of curriculum and performance in classes (particularly academic classes and trend lines in terms of grades). On the other hand, until the country's secondary school system develops a universal measuring stick for performance, rigor, etc., I think you'll continue to see the SAT/ACT or some other measure used. While they are flawed exams, they do provide a type of national measure. With this being said, I feel much more comfortable taking a student with high grades in a tough curriculum with lower test scores than I do a student with mediocre grades and higher test scores. Much of college success, I'm convinced, is based on persistence and study skills traits and habits. These come with earnest effort.

 

John Blackburn, University of Virginia

Standardized tests are important in our process as one factor in a combination of many. We have no formulas or cut-off scores. I predict that standardized tests scores will always be important as we see students moving into so many new academic programs with home-schooled programs being the most removed from organized educational programs.

 

We admit some students with modest scores if the rest of the application is particularly strong.

 

Allen London, Mercer University

Mercer places a high value on standardized test scores. In fact, we list this as one of the prime factors for gaining admission. We feel that standardized tests will continue to be used in the admissions process. Students who wish to overcome a weak score have the option of coming to our summer program where they must take two classes and earn at least a C grade in each. These students are not considered for any merit based scholarships, however.

 

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