WSJ: College Admission Season Is Crazier Than Ever. That Could Change Who Gets In.

[Anonymous]

By waiving SATs and ACTs, highly selective schools invited an unprecedented wave of applications, upending the traditional decision process

https://www.wsj.com/articles/college-admission-season-is-crazier-than-ever-that-could-change-who-gets-in-11615909061

Ivy League schools and a host of other highly selective institutions waived SAT and ACT requirements for the class of 2025, resulting in an unprecedented flood of applications and what may prove the most chaotic selection experiment in American higher education since the end of World War II.

The question hanging over higher education this month is whether this influx will permanently change how colleges select students and, ultimately, the makeup of the student population.

Interviews with college-admissions officials and public and private high school counselors point to an epic effort behind the scenes to make tough judgment calls at the highest speed. Colleges send out the bulk of their decision notices in March and early April, but it won’t be widely known how the incoming freshman classes will look until late summer or early fall. Added to the uncertainty will be whether students who deferred enrollment during the last admissions cycle will decide to enter school this year.

Mr. Coffin says he is conflicted about going test-optional. Before the pandemic Dartmouth considered standardized test scores to be among the most important information alongside grade point average, essays and class rank. Seeing strong scores helps his team feel more confident that admitted students could cut it at the Ivy League institution. “It becomes a moral question,” he said. “I don’t want to admit someone who is going to struggle.”

Students who don’t submit test scores could be considered riskier if they are applying from a high school that doesn’t have a history of sending students to a particular college, Mr. Bigelow said, noting that it isn’t obvious whether straight-A’s in a middling high school translate into an ability to handle work at rigorous colleges.

There are signs that students from diverse backgrounds may actually lose out this year. Applications for federal aid from high-school seniors are tracking 9.1% below last year, according to the National College Attainment Network, with even sharper declines among students from low-income high schools and schools with large minority populations.

And at the same time the most selective schools are overwhelmed by applications, colleges without national name recognition and ones that generally draw more low-income and first-generation college students reported declines.

[Anonymous]

If a student is unable to find an open testing location, that is a problem and they will not have scores to submit. Most of the students I know are preparing and taking standardized tests.

Competitive colleges still seem to taking most of their class form those that do submit scores. For example - ED spots at Penn which make up about half the class - 76 percent had submitted scores.

[Anonymous]

If you are another other than lower class, ie MC, UMC, UC, you better take the test if you want to be considered. It really isn't optional.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you are another other than lower class, ie MC, UMC, UC, you better take the test if you want to be considered. It really isn't optional.

this. Test optional lets schools take the first gen inner city kid would would have been shut out with a 1100 SAT score in normal years. Thanks to grade inflation and non-existent standard, there are more than a few kids going to inner-city schools with great GPAs who would bomb the SAT/ACT if the took them. This year, all it takes is a guidance counselor pushing to them to apply to schools they would never otherwise consider and to skip the tests

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are another other than lower class, ie MC, UMC, UC, you better take the test if you want to be considered. It really isn't optional.

this. Test optional lets schools take the first gen inner city kid would would have been shut out with a 1100 SAT score in normal years. Thanks to grade inflation and non-existent standard, there are more than a few kids going to inner-city schools with great GPAs who would bomb the SAT/ACT if the took them. This year, all it takes is a guidance counselor pushing to them to apply to schools they would never otherwise consider and to skip the tests

Good for them. Give them the opportunity.

Test optional isn't an option for DC because the unweighted GPA isn't there. I don't know if the grades are inflated or not, but they're not inflated enough for DC to be test optional.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Good for them. Give them the opportunity.

Test optional isn't an option for DC because the unweighted GPA isn't there. I don't know if the grades are inflated or not, but they're not inflated enough for DC to be test optional.

This hints at a problem, that not all students who are academically capable will have the GPA to go test optional, yet will hear that they don't need to test. In particular, I'm referring to males from disadvantaged groups who may not have come from an educational culture and thus don't have blemish-free transcripts or whose transcripts lack rigor due to poor advising and such, the proverbial diamond in the rough. Sure, most colleges are still test optional and will accept the scores, but some students are being advised not to bother, when they very much should.