This is only a test
High school seniors (and parents), your waiting time is almost over.
Now and for the next few weeks, college admissions deans are “in committee” – sequestered, huddled and locked in their ivory tower offices. There they pore over the grades, essays, letters and what some may see as the magic make-or-break SAT and ACT scores of more than 1 million future college freshmen.
But as more colleges than ever seek variety and diversity, getting top scores no longer is the sure-fire combination for success.
The National Center for Fair and Open Testing’s Web site, fairtest.org, lists more than 730 four-year public and private colleges out of about 2,400 that have made the college boards less important or optional.
The list includes Eastern Washington University, Central Washington University and the University of Idaho. Whitworth College announced last month that they would no longer require students to submit SAT or ACT scores at all.
William Sumner, dean of admission and financial aid at Grinnell College in Iowa, says that test scores “are precisely half as important as what’s most important, which is the school record.”
Now, as you wait over the next month for that thick letter (accepted!) or the thin one (sorry!), we offer a few facts and fables about the college boards that may or may not make you feel better.
Myth: The better your SAT or ACT scores, the smarter you are.
“Your score on the ACT has no bearing on how smart you are,” said Ken Gullette, spokesman for Iowa City-based ACT Inc., which distributes and grades the standardized test.
Caren Scoropanos, spokesperson for the College Board in New York, which administers the SAT, is just as emphatic. “It is not an intelligence test,” she said.
College admission officers are aware that the SAT and ACT are reasoning and assessment tests. They show only to what degree a student has mastered a certain limited body of material offered in high school. It doesn’t measure creative thinking, complex ideas, leadership or drive or other qualities that make fine applicants. They also are aware that opportunity, education and race can affect SAT or ACT scores.
Fact: The richer and more educated your parents, the better your scores are likely to be.
College admission counselors know this, too. It is one of the prime reasons many colleges have begun putting less emphasis on SAT and ACT scores.
Recent and historic numbers collected the last 40 years by the U.S. Department of Education bear out the trend. The most recent statistics for 2005, for example, show that students who come from families that make more than $100,000 a year score, on average, 130 points higher on the SAT than students from families making $10,000 a year or less.
Racially white students (532 verbal, 536 math) and Asian students (511 verbal, 580 math) scored better on average than Hispanic students (463 verbal, 469 math), Mexican students (453 verbal, 463 math) or black students (433 verbal, 431 math).
The explanation is simple: Parents with more money who are better-educated are able to afford better school or test preparation classes than parents of other students.
More than SAT and ACT scores, admission officers look closely at grades, family background, family income, special talents and academic interests. At elite colleges, they also look at the proportion of advanced courses a student might have taken compared to how many such courses were offered. Did they take them all? Did they take one?
Myth: Your SAT or ACT scores predict how successful you’ll be throughout college.
Those who administer the SAT and ACT fully acknowledge that the tests predict only how well a student is likely to do in his or her freshman year at any particular college.
“Everybody wants their children to be prepared for college,” said Gullette, the ACT spokesman. “But to be a success in school and life requires more than getting a 36 on the ACT. Students need to get over that, and their peers need to get over that. They need to stop pressuring their children to think that perfection is required.”