SAT scores no longer necessary at some universities

For many high school students, the SAT is often seen as the arbiter of the future -- a test that may determine one's path through college and beyond. However, several colleges and universities are now rethinking the role of standardized testing in their admissions policies. A number of schools, ranging from small liberal arts colleges like Middlebury College in Vermont to large public institutions like Indiana State University, have stopped requiring applicants to submit results of SAT I examinations. Other schools, like Smith College, in Northampton, Mass., have decreased the emphasis of the test scores in their application process. Sally Rubenstone, an admission counselor at Smith, said she felt that "what Smith has done in the past year is devalue the SAT." However, many maintain the test is still useful in certain aspects of the selection process. Rubenstone, who has written several books on college admissions, pointed out that when schools are faced with a highly competitive pool of nearly identical students, the SAT "has become a tiebreaker, especially in [the] Ivy League." Lee Stetson, Penn's dean of admissions, foresees no changes in the consideration of test scores when selecting applicants for Penn. "I think that standardized testing continues to be a major element in the process," he said. "There's been no attempt to downgrade or change the way we use SATs." The SAT faces new challenges in another area as well -- public institutions in California, Texas and Florida plan to, or have already, begun to accept students falling within a certain percentile in their high school classes, reducing the need for standardized test scores. However, the College Board, the organization that administers the SATs asserts the continuing relevance of the test and discounts any trend away from its use. Janice Gams, associate director of public affairs for the College Board, said "mass media has been riding this as [a] major trend, and it's not a trend at all." She cited a statistic that found that well over 80 percent of the 1,800 four-year colleges in the United States utilize the SAT. Joseph Pedulla, chairman of the Department of Educational Research, Measurement and Evaluation at Boston College, said the convenience of the test makes it attractive to post-secondary institutions, particularly some schools that receive several thousand applications yearly. "If it's a large public institution... they need something that's very quick," he said. "It's a common metric" that facilitates the comparison of applicants. And contrary to Gams, Pedulla said decreasing the significance of the SAT was a trend that "is taking off." Gams added that SAT results were "in some cases more valid than grades" due to "variations from teacher to teacher" and among high schools themselves, of which there are thousands in the United States alone. Colleges may also begin to look at test scores only as positive measures. Rubenstone said applicants with high test scores could be rewarded much as those with athletic or artistic ability -- and not penalized for the lack thereof. Scores might "no longer be the make-it or break-it proposition," she added. In contrast, Stetson did not foresee any significant decrease on reliance on the SAT: "The fact that two or three schools [have dropped requirements does] not make a trend."