Latest College Prep News & Tips

Every year at this time we hear a news story about colleges dropping their admissions test requirement.  This year, we added Le Moyne College and the University of Puget Sound to that list.  According to Fairtest.org, this lis has now grown to about 800 four-year colleges.  The question naturally arises: “Are college admission tests, such as the SAT, still relevant?”

The answer is the same as it is for many questions about the college admissions process: it depends.  From 2000 to 2013, the National Association for College Admissions Counseling’s Annual State of College Admission Report shows an almost identical percentage of colleges rating standardized admission test scores of “Considerable Importance.”  In both years 58% of respondents gave that answer.  What does that mean?  It means that the overall portion of schools who think that standardized tests matter has remained the same.

What is interesting to note, however, is that the majority of colleges that have gone “test-optional” are small, private colleges.  If you look more closely at the results of the report in 2013, 70% of public colleges rank SAT and ACT scores of considerable importance.  In addition, they rate test scores as more important than strength of curriculum.  With the percentage of high school students applying to public colleges increasing, for most students test scores are still important.  Moreover, while test scores might be decreasing in importance for admission at small private schools, they continue to be an important determinate in the awarding of academic scholarships.  Most college-based scholarships are determined by a student’s SAT/ACT score and GPA.

The final opinion on college admission tests?

So we see that, all recent news stories to the contrary, college admission tests such as the SAT and ACT are alive and well and still very relevant to the college admission decision process.