Few colleges need the extra data that misrepresents what so many can do
Note to readers: The Talon’s View is our staff editorial. Each issue on the Opinions page, the staff editorial will address an important issue and give readers the consensus views of the Advanced Journalism Talon staff (or as much of a consensus as is possible on controversial issues). It is anonymously written to reflect group discussion and input. Through the Talon’s View, we hope to make student voices heard in the Minnehaha community. We welcome readers’ responses, which you can deliver to a Talon staff member.
Within the next few months students all over the country will be submitting college applications.
On Monday our fellow Redhawks sophomores participated in the PSAT; this was their first taste of what it is like to take a standardized test like those that could be submitted with their college applications.
During COVID-19 most colleges decided that it was no longer reasonable to expect all students who apply to submit a SAT or ACT test score because during lock-down not everyone had access to testing centers.
After the pandemic, there has been much argument on whether colleges and universities should require students who apply to submit SAT or ACT scores again.
We as a Talon staff believe that schools not considered “Ivys” or “elite universities” should stay or switch to a test-optional policy.
Minnehaha Academy is known as a college prep school with students applying to hundreds of schools each year; this leads to MA students having strong opinions on whether schools should require standardized tests or not.
Our Talon class has sophomore, junior and senior students who all have college decisions quickly approaching. We feel strongly about test-optional policies.
We do not think that requiring these tests is the best choice for colleges to make. Tests don’t tend to actually show what you’ve learned, whereas grades do.
When schools look at applications, students feel that standardized test scores aren’t a valid representation of who they are as a student.
Some students can not test well just because of the nature of how their brain is wired. It feels unfair. We feel like some have fewer options on where they can apply because some scores won’t be a valid representation of the students’ knowledge.
Conner Stanfield is a senior assistant director of admission at Grinnell College, a small, highly selective liberal arts school in Iowa. While traveling across the country, he meets with high schoolers at their schools and at college fairs. He visited Minnehaha in late September. Grinnell currently has a test-optional policy that has been in place for the last five years, however that has not always been the case. Along with many schools, Grinnell switched to a test optional policy during COVID-19 to accommodate students.
“We decided to relax [our test-mandatory] policy a little bit, because there were many students who were struggling to access testing centers,” said Stanfield. “We decided to make the optional test policy for that year, but also to initiate a pilot policy where for the next 5 years, we would remain test-optional.”
As Grinnell is approaching the end of their five-year pilot policy, they are beginning to discuss whether they are to return to the original test-mandatory policy or keep the policy that they have had in recent years.
“From my perspective, it’s encouraging many more students to apply to Grinnell College,” Stanfield said. “For a student who might not feel confident in their test score, or might not think that their test scores are the best reflection of their abilities … it can feel more comfortable in applying to Grinnell College.”
While there is much debate on whether or not test scores are mandatory, we understand the reasons why test scores have been mandatory in the past years.
For bigger universities they have thousands of applicants each year but can’t accept them all. The most selective schools accept only 20% of applicants — or 10%, or even 5%.
When most applicants have well-written essays, a 4.0 GPA and are well-rounded in their extracurricular activities, we understand why elite universities would require standardized test scores to help differentiate all these very qualified applicants that on paper can appear the same.
But many high-school students believe that schools who have test-mandatory policies add an “unneeded anxiety” in the college application process.
A college should be allowed to prefer a test but not necessarily require it. If a student does not want to take the ACT or SAT, why should they have to?
While talking about standardized testing is still up in the air for college admission processes, we believe that very few schools should be test mandatory and most schools should have a test-optional policy.
For the large majority of both private and public universities, admissions should be test-optional. Displaying a personal academic profile should be tailored to the student’s specific needs and wants.
