S.A. college makes test-free rule permanent
SAN ANTONIO — Students applying to St. Mary’s University will no longer need to show any type of standardized test score. The university has opted to become the first Texas institution to permanently adopt test-free admissions.
It has collected data on the possible impact of the switch for the past two years, an unexpected trial period that started when the coronavirus pandemic halted much of the state’s standardized testing and caused continuous problems with testing sites, said Rosalind Alderman, vice president for enrollment management at St. Mary’s.
Lots of U.S. higher education institutions did the same, and nearly 2,000 of them extended their testoptional or test-free admissions process for the upcoming school year in light of the pandemic-related testing halts.
But St. Mary’s is one of about 20 in the country that have made the test-free option permanent, according to The National Center for Fair and Open Testing.
“Our data has really shown that the SAT or ACT score does not really help us predict any more the first-year success of our students,” Alderman said. “We really had to think to ourselves, ‘If the high school GPA (grade point average) is so much more predictive than other factors, how do we make this the most equitable process?’ ”
The change was not an overnight decision, officials said. There were many things to keep in mind, including how to jettison the test requirement without creating the impression that academic expectations had changed.
For the 2020-21 school year, the university admitted a freshman class of 514 students with an average GPA of 3.59. Most had applied under the test-free option. In the fall of 2021, the incoming freshman class of 606 students had an average GPA of 3.61. About 75 percent of them were admitted without submitting test scores.
“We had the largest number of completed applications ever for the 2019 cycle. Once the 2020 cycle came around things got a bit wonky,” Alderman said. “But when we started planning for the 2021 year looking to go test-optional, what we wanted to see is if we would continue to see a similar number of applications… We also wanted to closely monitor the academic quality, with one of the points being the GPA.”
The 2022-2023 freshman class will be the first to be admitted 100 percent test-free. The university continues to consider high school performance, grade point average and class standing and will continue to accept optional essays and letters of recommendation.
The idea is to build a good picture of where students come from, their accomplishments so far and where they want to go, said Tony Sarda, St. Mary’s director of undergraduate admissions.
“Looking at the entire composite of what a student submits in an admissions application, we felt that at the end of the day, in a testfree holistic submission review, we still had a preponderance of information that would let us make really good admissions decisions, both for the student and for the university,” Sarda said, adding, “We are trying not to admit applicants — we are trying to admit alumni.”
Communicating the change to students, 'faculty and parents has been done carefully, officials said.
Part of the messaging to applicants — and to faculty who might have questioned if the new students were up to par — is that the academic excellence and level of rigor remains the same, they said.
“We faced some push-back from students, just from the perspective of them saying, ‘Are you sure? I hear you. I understand that you are saying that this test is now optional. But is optional really optional?’ ” Sarda said. “We had seen that college admissions had conditioned students into (thinking that) one, this test was important; two, that it was required; and three, that it told us something pretty critical about them.”
Especially in a year where application processes at many universities continue to be test-optional or test-free, Sarda hopes this helps applicants think about their power to choose where to apply, rather than thinking colleges and universities have full control.
“There’s this concept of, ‘Admissions offices are places that say no, not places that say yes,’ ” Sarda said. “But two thirds of colleges nationwide admit more than half of the students that apply for admission. And that’s one of the things I try to tell students all the time. You are going to find more places that say yes to more people than places that say no.”
The test-free process is new and some program offerings in areas in which St. Mary’s cooperates with external entities will need to be adjusted, Alderman said. These include early entry to doctoral programs, medical schools or dental schools that require test scores.
“Maybe some of the data mining that we do could help some of those other external agencies change their thoughts and processes,” she said.
In the coming years, the university also will watch retention and completion rates, to see if students who choose St. Mary’s due to the test-free option are completing their career paths, Alderman said. But the overall goal on is to continue to expand access and facilitate the four-year college path for more students.