San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Colleges rethink requirements as standardized tests phase out
So much upheaval happened with schools over the past two pandemic years, especially for high school students. What should have been an exciting time of proms, clubs and sports, studying for SAT and ACT tests and preparing college admission applications, turned into gloomy Zoom time and insecurity.
Dances are finally coming back. But students eyeing the college of their dreams faced a wall that may still seem insurmountable. Teachers and counselors have been hard pressed to write letters of recommendation for students they might not have even met, there were no extra-curricular activities to boost a student’s resume and no way to accomplish the required in-person academic tests. Students wanting to figure out college preferences couldn’t even visit a campus or meet with an advisor.
Yet things are brightening up again. As one positive result of the chaos, administrators have been rethinking the college admissions process.
In a tectonic shift, many colleges and universities in California are not requiring students applying for the fall 2022 semester to submit their ACT or SAT scores. The California State University system announced in March that it is permanently dropping the SAT and ACT standardized tests in its admissions process while the University of California has suspended SAT and ACT testing requirements through 2024 and plans to eliminate them completely by 2025.
As the National Center for Fair & Open Testing (FairTest) organization’s Executive Director Bob Schaeffer notes, standardized testing contains flaws that do not measure a student’s ability to think deeply or creatively and are graded by programmed machines with no subjective insight.
Also, a May 2021 study of college admission tests found that the SAT and ACT tests can discriminate against low-income, minority and female students in college admissions at selective colleges.
“The wealthy do not have a monopoly on intelligence,” said report author and Cerebly, Inc. college access consulting firm President Mark Kantrowitz. “But students in higher income families tend to live in better public school districts and can afford to enroll in private schools and pay for SAT tutoring.”
With test scores falling by the wayside, students should now focus on their personal attributes, along with a simple academic history showing grades earned and courses completed.
“Students often fret they have nothing to offer a college,” said Holy Names High School College Access Program Coordinator Rachel Sommerville.
The private Catholic girls college preparatory academy in
Oakland recently developed her role into a specialty position to guide students through the increasingly complicated, competitive and financially challenging process.
“Students have to remember they all have interesting stories to tell,” she said. “We encourage them to switch their way of looking at the whole pathway to college, reflecting, for example, on their athletic careers, their family responsibilities, their disappointments, struggles and triumphs, in a meaningful journey of selfdiscovery.”
That means more interaction than just book learning and taking tests.
“We tell our 9th graders to be curious about the world,” Sommerville said. “Colleges are looking for students who will be successful on their campuses, and what better way to be intellectually and socially successful than exploring? It includes practicing the difficult art of stepping forward in order to find out more, to join in, to read deeper, to approach teachers and to ask others about their lives.”
UC Berkeley staffs an Office of Undergraduate Admissions that has adapted to modern issues, as well. Communication is key, so admissions representatives can be reached by phone, office visits, mail and email, but students can now also connect with them via social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Medium), and via a Zoom Virtual Front Desk.
Making things even easier, all students maintaining a 3.0 GPA in required courses taken in the 10th and 11th grade years can apply to as many UC campuses as they like with one application. Later in the process, they can submit their important supporting documentation such as awards, photographs, poetry and essays.
“All achievement — both academic and non-academic or personal — is considered in the context of a student’s educational circumstances with an emphasis on the opportunities or challenges presented to them and their response to them,” said UC Berkeley Communications & Media Relations Executive Director Roqua Montez.
To get started, Sommerville suggests taking small steps, and early on, to avoid too much stress.
“Expressing your story successfully in a personal statement can’t happen in the month before applications are due,” she said. “Junior year and rising senior summer are when students should pull out a journal and start taking notes about their lives. Then they can turn to trusted mentors, family members or teachers to help make those notes into meaningful stories to tell colleges.”
Ideally, a student would start preparing in their freshman year. Holy Names offers a fouryear College Access Program recommended for every student whether they are contemplating community college or Stanford University. Structure begins in the 9th grade with workshops covering topics like expanding talents and exploring new opportunities; creating strong presentation, public speaking and project management skills; and learning how to advocate for oneself and how to ask for help or guidance.
Realize, too, that not everyone needs to go Ivy League.
“Don’t believe the hype,” Sommerville said. “There are many, many fantastic colleges in California and in the U.S. that accept a majority of applicants. One of the first activities we have juniors and their families do is view the list of colleges attended by students who make up Yale Law School’s incoming class profile. Why? Many Yale Law School students attended colleges outside the usual big-names, yet these provide an undergraduate education which Yale recognizes as being just fine.”
She particularly recommends the California State University system.
“Twenty-three campuses with a remarkable range of interesting courses and stellar professors,” she said. “And all a student has to do is complete one application — add your academic history showing grades and the courses completed. There is no writing, no standardized test scores.”
Even more colleges likely will begin removing SAT/ACT requirements soon, Schaeffer believes, making many more fine institutions more accessible to all students. As of this March, more than 1,825 accredited, four-year U.S. colleges did not require standardized scores, he said. And many of those reported receiving more applicants, including better academically qualified students from more diverse demographics.