SAT Optional Schools

sybbie719
Sun, 14 Oct 2007 10:37:36 +0000

My D applied and was accepted to a SAT optional school Mount Holyoke. She also applied to 6 other schools that took scores into consideration. She was accepted to all 7 schools. As part of Mount Holyoke’s process she also had to submit a graded paper with comments (she submitted a rewriting of a Canterbury Tale from her AP English class) and she chose to interview.

As far as FA was concerned, since it was need based aid, the package was what it was although D did receive a leadership award from the school.



I suppose that most applicants not submitting scores are not doing so because their scores are in the below average range in at least one section.



Definitely not true. Bates has been test optional for ~20 years and has done extensive research on the topic. Their findings were:

The difference in Bates graduation rates between submitters and non-submitters is 0.1% (one-tenth of one percent).
The difference in overall GPAs at Bates is .05 (five-hundredths of a GPA point); the exact difference is 3.06 for non-submitters and 3.11 for submitters.

Bates has almost doubled its applicant pool since making testing optional; about a third of each class at Bates enters without submitting testing in the admissions process.

Testing is not necessary for predicting good performance; the academic ratings assigned by Bates admissions staff are highly accurate for both submitters and non-submitters in predicting GPA.

Optional testing policies are often assumed to be a device for affirmative action efforts. Students of color use an optional testing policy at somewhat higher than average rates, and Bates has increased its enrollment of students of color and international students. But white students using the policy outnumber students of color by 5-to-1.

The policy draws sharply increased application rates from all the subgroups who commonly worry about standardized testing: women, U.S. citizens of color, international citizens, low-income or blue collar students, rural students, students with learning disabilities and students with rated talents in athletics, the arts or debate.

There are very modest differences in the majors that submitters and non-submitters choose at Bates, but some intriguing patterns: Non-submitters are more likely to major in fields that put a premium on creativity and originality.
There are modest differences in the career outcomes of submitters and non-submitters, with one glaring exception: the four fields where students have to take another standardized test to gain entrance to graduate programs for medicine, law, an M.B.A. or Ph.D. In fields where success does not depend on further standardized testing—including business executive officers and finance careers—submitters and non-submitters are equally represented.



http://www.bates.edu/ip-optional-testing-20years.xml

Hamilton did a 5 year study where they found:





There are a number of qualified applicants who apply each year – many who rank in the top 5 percent of their high school class – but in the past we might not have considered them because their SAT scores didn’t come close to our average of 1388 [in 2005] for admitted students," Inzer said. “Now we have a way to broaden the definition of achievement and expand the conversation so that it is about more than one exam.”

Data show the five-year experiment has been successful. “When I came to Hamilton two years ago and learned of this policy I was skeptical,” she said. “But the data prove this has been a good policy for all the right reasons.”

Inzer said students who do not submit the SAT have GPAs at Hamilton that are slightly higher (85.6 vs. 85.1) than those who choose to submit the SAT. “Clearly, SAT-optional students fare well academically here. These are students who have earned the privilege to be at Hamilton.”

Approximately 40 percent of the students in each entering class have chosen not to submit the SAT since it was made optional at Hamilton in 2001. During the same period, the percentage of students enrolled from underrepresented ethnicities has increased from 13 percent of the class to 18 percent, not including international students. Likewise, the percentage of students entering Hamilton ranked in the top 10 percent of their high school class has improved from 63 percent to 70 percent, and the percentage of those ranked in the top 20 percent has risen from 83 percent to 87 percent.

“During the past five years, the academic profile of Hamilton’s entering classes has improved, while at the same time we have enrolled a more diverse class,” Inzer said. “This is a policy where everyone wins.”



http://www.hamilton.edu/news/more_news/display.cfm?id=10468

Mount Holyoke has also done a multi-year study and did not find that students who went SAT optional as having lower scores that those that decided to submit scores.

when looking at their policy 4 years later, they found:



Interim results from that study show no meaningful difference in academic performance between students who did not submit scores and those who did. The study shows that there is a .1 difference between the aggregate grade point averages of submitters and non-submitters. The difference is equivalent to approximately one letter grade in one course over a year of study.

“The fact is that the SAT does not add enough value for us to require students and their families to make such a large investment of time, energy, and money in this single, high-stakes test,” said Jane B. Brown, vice president for enrollment and college relations at Mount Holyoke. “We would encourage high school students to focus instead on activities that promote long-term intellectual and personal growth rather than on time-consuming and often expensive strategies to raise their SAT scores.”

One early result from the study confirms what has been widely assumed: As families’ income levels rise, so too does the likelihood that the student has had the advantage of SAT training classes or special tutoring. More than two-thirds of prospective Mount Holyoke students from higher-income families took an SAT preparation course, and one in three had private tutoring.