Colleges should look at more than the numbers when admitting students

As thousands of undergraduate freshmen set foot in their first college class this week, millions more high school seniors are drilling for the SAT this weekend.

Across the state, approximately 50,000 high school seniors will take the SAT this year, and thousands will this Saturday with a specific score in mind for the college of their dreams. The test is scored on a 1600-point scale. For NCSU, the middle-50 percent of students admitted for the class of 2021 was from a 1240 – 1370, for UNC it was 1270-1450, and for Duke it was 1440-1570, just to name a few schools from the Triangle.

Because of the exactness of a test score and growing concern over which variables are most important in the application process, more schools are claiming a “holistic” approach to college admissions – one that incorporates activities, course rigor, essays and other details about a potential new student. Even so, some parents and students say they still think college admissions is a numbers game and not truly holistic, despite the claims. Everyone has a “friend of a friend” story about a well-rounded student who defied expectations and was accepted or denied at a top school.

Regardless of how much emphasis is placed on the SAT and ACT, they are used as a “neutral yardstick” by which all students are measured. A new study from Johns Hopkins University says that SAT scores, when combined with grades, provide an accurate prediction of academic success in college. The study also shows data that demonstrates that grade inflation in high school has occurred over the past ten years, while standardized test scores have remained constant.

But another study released in May from National Association of College Admissions Counseling says that standardized testing puts good students from challenging socioeconomic backgrounds at a disadvantage and jeopardizes the diversity of a school’s student body.

These are important issues to consider. College admissions professionals across the state are faced with some of the largest applicant pools in history along with wildly varying academic programs between public, charter, home and private high schools. GPA ranges vary from out-of-state applicants as well. Most North Carolina high schools measure on a 4.0 scale, or 5.0 for honors classes and 6.0 for Advanced Placement. In some northern states, students can earn up to a 12.0 GPA. Standardized tests give admissions staff a common marker for evaluation.

Still, as my own son burns the midnight oil ahead of Saturday’s SAT, I have to wonder how this test will really measure anything except his ability to take it. He is a thoughtful leader, a deep thinker and a hardworking, good student. I have no doubt that wherever he goes he will be successful. However, he also works methodically, making timed tests challenging.

In 2009, Wake Forest University decided to make submission of standardized test scores optional, telling students that they’d rather know what they did over four years than over four hours on a Saturday. This decision made WFU the first top-30 national university to go test-optional. They now make a personal interview an important part of the admissions decision. Hundreds of other schools followed, and now there are 1,000 schools in the nation that eliminated standardized testing as a requirement as of January 2018.

NCSU had more than 26,000 applications last year, more than could reasonably expect to get individual interviews. Standardized testing will likely remain an important part of admissions at large universities, but perhaps this quandary is an opportunity for smaller schools to draw talented students.