This
year, I spent spring break on the road visiting colleges, and after visiting 7
schools I am thoroughly exhausted and even more confused. While all these
schools look for slightly different things on a potential student's
application, they all claimed that the transcript
was the most important component. That seems fair, right? Colleges should be
looking for students who work hard and take rigorous courses.
But just when I thought I was in the clear, they uttered the words I hate hearing: "...oh but we also require either the SAT or the ACT as well".
This frustrates me on a couple of levels and intrigues me
at the same time. I'm so interested in the idea of standardized testing that
I've actually decided to write my junior theme on it. The reason I find this
debate so interesting is because I don't know why so many colleges require some
form of testing on their applications. Do they think it's a fair way of
determining or gauging intelligence? I have consistently heard from college admission
boards that they are more interested in the hard working, driven student, than
the kid with the photographic memory. But if college admissions are truly interested
in the hard working student then why
include testing scores at all? According to iSeek Education, most 4-year universities "rely on standardized tests to determine your readiness for college–level study"
Why do test scores
determine one's "readiness"? I've always been told that working hard
in high school is what prepares a student for college. Do you think a student with a 36 ACT score means he's ready for college?
Very thought provoking post Bridget! While I do not think that the ACT or SAT is an accurate way to necessarily gage "college readiness" I think these tests can be useful in other respects. Most of what they are testing is basic skills; grammer rules, reading comprehension, graph reading, freshman math, etc. And I think sometimes our perception of the usefulness of standardized testing can be skewed because we go to such a great school. At New Trier, scoring under a 20 is pretty much unheard of, and many of us will end up having the same ACT score anyways with the average last year at NT being a 27.5. But, that's not even close to what the much lower national average is (around a 21). I personally know many people outside of New Trier that have scored under a 20, which is much closer to the national average, and I'd argue that these people that I know have not had as rich of an education that our 27.5 average ACT score highschool has provided us with.
ReplyDeleteAlthough, while I think it is very important to have mastered basic skills which are touched upon in standardized testing, I think that other factors, such as work experience and social service, should hold weight as well. I too went on a college tour this spring break and one of the schools I saw took 26 factors of the applier into account! This is how all schools should be.
Very interesting post Bridget! I agree with your point that the including the transcripts for the college process is fair. However, I don't think that just because you have a perfect score on a standardized test means your "ready" for college. One might be ready educationally, but that doesn't mean the invidivual is ready emotionally. College is a huge transformation change from highschool that can take toll on someone emotionally. I think it's unfair for colleges to judge someone based upon one test because some people, like myself, have anxiety and I choke up during test which results in a lower test score.
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