Let's Admit It
February 1, 2024
Let's Admit It
It's time to bring back the SAT and ACT exams as part of the college application. For too long now secondary school administrators have bowed to parental pressure to back away from the exam, and college and universities have acted accordingly with more and more of them no longer making either exam a requirement for admission.
Much has been put forth about the college admission process, but so much of that bloviating has concerned very elite colleges and universities. What most people don't realize is that what happens in the Ivy League has very little to do with the vast majority of colleges and universities.
College admission officers are really asking only one question when they look at an applicant: Can they succeed here academically?
It's not an easy question to answer and they need tools to answer it such as a student's high school grades, grade point averages, class rank, and test scores, perhaps even the notes from an on-campus interview or a school counselor.
Alas, the devil, as they say, is in the details. High school counselors are vastly overworked with very often huge caseloads of students. It simply is not possible for them to give every one of their charges the kind of attention that would allow them to write a truly effective letter. If they manage to write one letter supporting a student they happen to know well, that's a good day, if a little unusual.
The campus visit where you can toot your horn to an admission counselor is always a worthy endeavor, and can mean the difference between being admitted and not being admitted, but for family, budgetary, and travel reasons it's an option only a small number of applicants can manage.
Thus, we come down to the academics. Consider the class rank. How a student measures up or ranks against their peers can be useful information. Let's face it. In America we love to rank things – from sports teams to the best and worst movies. It is, however, an iffy bit of data since the valedictorian in a class of fifty might have a much different set of skills compared with a valedictorian in a class of eight-hundred. In addition, and unfortunately, huge numbers of high schools no longer rank their classes. Another tool gone.
That leaves us with grades and test scores.
What's wrong with grades? Don't they really tell a student's academic story? Not necessarily. High schools differ in size and quality as well as in the courses they offer. Some schools might offer a wide array of Advanced Placement (AP) classes, while others can manage only a few. Also, an A- in one school might well be a C+ in another. Finally, it's no secret that grade inflation has gained a massive foothold in America's high schools (and, alas, in many colleges and universities as well).
Let's bring back the standardized tests so as to buttress those areas that aren't as reliable as they used to be. A student who has excellent grades but scores poorly on such tests tells the admission officer a lot, as does the student with miserable grades but outstanding test scores.
The bottom line: The admission officer wants to make a good decision so as to provide a great opportunity for a capable student, and to keep a poorer student from signing up for a year or two of expensive failure. They need all the help they can get in making that decision.
G.K. Wuori © 2024
Photoillustration by the author