H 23°, L 4° | Tomorrow: 
H 21°, L 6°Removing the require-ment that SAT or ACT scores be submitted with student college applications may result in an increase in diversity on college campuses, according to a study conducted at Princeton University.
The study — conducted by Princeton sociology professor Thomas Espen-shade and statistical programmer Chang Young Chun — was based on models from admissions data for a variety of institutions that chose to remain anonymous.
According to Espenshade, the study showed only 9.3 percent of students at public universities are black or Hispanic, while 6.6 percent are from a lower socioeconomic background.
Making SAT or ACT scores optional would increase the percentage of black or Hispanic students admitted to public universities from about 11.9 percent to 13.5 percent, Espenshade said.
The percent of students admitted into public universities in the lowest two socioeconomic classes would rise to between 8.8 percent and 10.4 percent.
The percents vary on the amount of additional applicants who would be attracted to apply if the option not to submit scores was available.
In many cases, Espenshade said the number of applicants would increase dramatically if students with a strong academic record felt confident more than just test scores were taken into consideration when applying to schools.
“This removing of consideration of SAT scores altogether is what we call the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy,” Espenshade said. “What that means is that schools would not ask students for their SAT scores, and if they did tell schools, they would just disregard them.”
According to Espenshade, the policy would result in lower average SAT scores within the college or university’s applicant pool by about 10 points. In addition, a higher percentage of applicants would have scored below 650 on the SAT II subject tests.
In contrast, the proportion of students with high GPAs — especially among students with an A- or higher average — would increase, Espenshade said.
Robert Schaeffer, public education director of the National Center for Fair & Open Testing, voiced support for the movement to eliminate the importance of SAT scores in the college admission process.
“We support colleges that do not require them to submit SAT/ACT scores,” Schaeffer said. “We think that colleges should choose the admission policy that best matches their own mission and the type of the students they want to attract.”
With the majority of colleges and universities in the United States on the look out for methods to increase racial and socioeconomic diversity among their freshman classes, Espenshade also said he encourages colleges to pursue removing SAT requirements.
Currently, several colleges — such as Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., Smith College in Northampton, Mass., and Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y., — have adopted the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.
Completely eliminating the SAT or ACT portion of the application, however, is still a subject for debate. According to Espenshade, the only college that has completely eliminated the SAT and ACT portion of their application is Sarah Lawrence College in Yonkers, N.Y.
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so because people aren’t smart enough to get into college, we’re going to just let everyone in? how does that make any sense
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Does merit have any place in academics anymore? Schaeffer says, �We think that colleges should choose the admission policy that best matches their own mission and the type of the students they want to attract.� Really? I wonder if that cuts both ways—I highly doubt Schaeffer would support a school mission that was based admissions entirely on academic merit. Putting unprepared students in an environment in which they cannot succeed does not benefit anybody. The standardized test is the last meaningful defense against rampant grade inflation in high schools; its imperfect but it is absolutely necessary.
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“Putting unprepared students in an environment in which they cannot succeed does not benefit anybody.” Just because someone didn’t score high on the ACT does not mean that they are unprepared for college. There are multiple kinds of intelligence and the ACT doesn’t determine anything except a number. There are plenty of kids who scored very high on standardized tests and flunked out of college their first year. I think students at this campus could benefit from increased diversity, but apparently some people are opposed to this idea. I get the idea you think you’re smarter than everyone??
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Do colleges really have to make a choice between high achieving students and diversity? This is disturbing to me in more ways than one.
Instead of dancing around the problem and letting in kids who can’t do well on a fairly straightforward concepts test, colleges need to reach out to “diverse” highschool students and help them learn how to do well on those tests. This is called the PEOPLE Program here at UW. After all, High-school GPAs are a pretty much a joke and not a reliable indicator of how smart you are. Plus, if you just not a good test taker, then you will really be screwed in college when tests makes up 90% of the grade.
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Great idea, there is no way this would lower performance levels and graduation rates, right? Pff. This is just going to result in the waste of taxpayer money and higher tuition. Why does race always become an issue?
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Wow, what a great idea. Maybe we can pay for them too. If we don’t let anyone smart or economically stable into UW then we can insure that all ‘those’ students go to private schools and free up public school space for whoever we want to let in based on whatever we want to base it on! Oh wait, I forgot, we can’t actually do that since we’re taxpayer funded.
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This is just another “feel good” policy universities use to make sure people’s feelings don’t get hurt. Grades and SAT/ACT scores, while imperfect, are the best indication of a students’ ability level. And the hard truth is if you can cut it on a stardardized test like the ACTs, you probably won’t cut it in universities that use standardized tests in almost every undergraduate class.
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This comment is in no way intended to be racist. Since when did every University’s purpose of “an institute of higher learning” merely become “a racially diverse community?” The purpose of post-high-school learning is to advance intelligent individuals, not to compose a community of diverse people for some to pay to live in.
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12:06 and 3:16 hit it on the head. If you can’t handle a test that ALL potential college students take, how can you plan to succeed in a place that is based on at least 60% testing? Seriously, I had an Ochem class that had only weekly quizzes, 3 midterms and a final as grades. Bad test taker? Sorry, but this system is founded on taking tests. Throwing unprepared students into this setting will be a waste. If you really want them to succeed, colleges should change the way they are set up, or prepare these students better for the college testing atmosphere. This campus is predominantly white, and I would like to see more diversity here, but shoving unprepared people into an intense academic setting is not the way to diversify.
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Judging from the comments here 100% of people think this is a bad idea.