The admissions process will not be changing next year despite a report that the National Association for College Admission Counseling released in September because it “only reaffirms what the University already does,” Thomas Griffin, director of admissions, said. Griffin said the University looks at students’ high school records intensely, and that the University will take either the SAT or the ACT at equal value in the admissions process.
Griffin said the University doesn’t have a formula for admission.
“We don’t give X amount of points for a certain test score, X amount of points for a certain GPA, but we do look at each application individually as part of a whole when making our decision,” Griffin said.
Vern Granger, a senior associate director of admissions, said a student’s SAT score is one of many factors, including academic record and the student’s supplemental information, that affects admissions.
The SAT is not the only measure of success for future students,” Granger said.
“[The SAT] is not equal for all students, not to mention that some people are not good test takers,” Philip Junk, a freshman in biology, said.
FairTest, a lobbying group that works to end the misuses and flaws of standardized testing and to ensure that evaluation of students, teachers and schools is fair, is encouraging universities across the nation to adopt a test-optional policy and to follow the like of Wake Forest.
Martha Blevins Allman, the director of admissions at Wake Forest University, said in an article Allman wrote on Wake Forest’s Web site, that she thinks that students spend too much time and effort studying for the SAT when they could use that time better by reading the newspaper.
“I believe that the admissions process in this country is broken and it is becoming more broken every day,” she said. “I’m concerned about really bright students who are falling through the cracks because they aren’t privileged enough or sophisticated enough to ‘play the game.'”
She also raised the question about how some students cant afford to get private tutors and take the test multiple times.
The NACAC report stated the group’s intent to create a level playing field for all students.
“This commission wishes to emphasize at the outset that a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach for the use of standardized tests in undergraduate admission does not reflect the realities facing our nation’s many and varied colleges and universities.”
The report summarized the results of the yearlong study that the dean of admissions at Harvard University conducted.
“Despite their prevalence in American high school culture, college admission exams — such as the SAT and ACT — may not be critical to making good admission decisions at many of the colleges and universities that use them.”
The NACAC report offered universities a few solutions such as the following: “A possible future direction for college admission tests is the development of curriculum-based achievement tests designed in consultation with colleges, secondary schools and state and federal agencies.”
James Hankins, a senior in political science, said the SAT should definitely not be the sole factor in decision-making during the admissions process.
The SAT, he said, should be used as a barometer of what a student has retained but also said he “cringes at the thought of the SAT being a qualifier for college.”