Wake Forest drops SAT requirement

[Wretched Excess]

Wake Forest joins schools dropping SAT requirement

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Wake Forest University will no longer require applicants to take the SAT and ACT exams, boosting a movement to lessen the importance of standardized tests in college admissions.

The Winston-Salem school, which admitted just 38 percent of its 9,000 applicants for this fall, is the latest in a string of colleges that no longer require standardized tests. Officials there say the scores are not the best predictor of academic potential.

Most other colleges that have dropped standardized testing have not been highly selective and accept most, if not all, qualified applicants. The most prominent and selective schools have generally continued to use the tests as one of several admissions criteria.

The announcement Tuesday from Wake Forest — on the heels of a similar decision this month by Smith College in Massachusetts — adds two more selective colleges to the movement.

Wake Forest said it was the first of the top 30 schools in the annual U.S. News & World Report college rankings to drop the tests.

Director of Admissions Martha Allman said she has seen students at the top of their class who excelled but did poorly on the SAT and didn't get in. The school, which did away with the testing requirement while examining how to diversify the student population, will instead place more emphasis on personal interviews, academics and extracurricular activities. Students can still have their test scores considered if they want.

"We in admissions have put up a barrier to these students to say all of your hard work and all of your academic achievement is being negated by one test, and we don't feel like that is fair," Allman said. "And it's not fair, especially if the studies are showing it's not a good predictor."

Much More Hysteria

what the heck . . . . at Wake?!?!?!?

[DixieBelle]

WTF??? So I guess their degrees will be worthless now? Or should be! 

If you can't fill in little bubbles on a test answer sheet, can you still run a the fry machine???

I should have just postponed college until now. Jeez!! To think I sweated those tests!

[JohnnyReb]

The school, which did away with the testing requirement while examining how to diversify the student population, will instead place more emphasis on personal interviews, academics and extracurricular activities.

Much More Hysteria

what the heck . . . . at Wake?!?!?!?

personal interviews......do you sound and think like a liberal moonbat?

academics.........are you a genius with ZERO commonsense?

extracurricular activities.......how many communist front clubs do you belong to and how many protest marches have you been in?

[Wretched Excess]

WTF??? So I guess their degrees will be worthless now? Or should be! 

If you can't fill in little bubbles on a test answer sheet, can you still run a the fry machine???

I should have just postponed college until now. Jeez!! To think I sweated those tests!

this is silly.

But critics contend the exams are too stressful and keep some students from showing their real potential. Smith, a highly ranked liberal arts college for women with a strong reputation for enrolling low-income students, said its decision was prompted by a correlation between test performance and race and household income.

and suicidal.

maybe wake can get away with it, since it sounds like they personally interview every single applicant . . . but it's still a silly idea.

[DixieBelle]

our future - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiocracy 

I guess I need to rent this. Oy!

[Wretched Excess]

our future - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiocracy 

I guess I need to rent this. Oy!

you're going to set Rebel off on another week full of saying "it's got electrolytes".

[DixieBelle]

Shit.

[Tess Anderson]

What's their problem, is it too hard to reach a quota via AA with having the SAT scores to consider?

Dumbing down continues...

[Chris_]

WTF??? So I guess their degrees will be worthless now? Or should be! 

If you can't fill in little bubbles on a test answer sheet, can you still run a the fry machine???

I should have just postponed college until now. Jeez!! To think I sweated those tests!

Oh Johnny can read, he just doesn't take tests well.   [/lib mode] 

[PatriotGame]

Wake Forest joins schools dropping SAT requirement

READ: "The village is in dire need of more idiots!"

[Ptarmigan]

our future - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiocracy 

I guess I need to rent this. Oy!

I like Idiocracy. Great movie! Too bad it did not get a full release. It is like watching a documentary of today.

[Chris_]

Wake Forest joins schools dropping SAT requirement

READ: "The village is in dire need of more idiots!"

Yeah.  I hear you there.  Even the community colleges around here require at least the ACT.

Wake Forest is a great little town.  Probably my favorite in the Triangle.

[Dixie*Darling]

Shameful.  Dumbing down indeed.
They might as well hold a lottery for their applicants. 

[jtyangel]

WTF??? So I guess their degrees will be worthless now? Or should be! 

If you can't fill in little bubbles on a test answer sheet, can you still run a the fry machine???

I should have just postponed college until now. Jeez!! To think I sweated those tests!

You should have! I'm in again and I have to tell you having this technology instead of a friggin typewriter the first time around is heaven. I really don't get how younger peeps can't meet their assignments. It takes considerably less time to prepare because of the technology.


As for the SAT, it would seem they are taking objective measures of aptitude out in preference of only subjective ones. Seems really silly since I know as a taxpayer I'd like to see a basic competency and aptitude before we start funding education for someone.

[NHSparky]

Looks like we can take the UGA slam (Go Jackets!) and apply it to the Demon Deacons now as well:

Wake Forest Dean: "Last year, 20 percent of our student body made straight "A's".  Next year, our goal will be to have 30 percent make round "O's"."

[Crazy Horse]

Wake dropping an SAT/ACT requirement means squat.

It's basically the same as MIT dropping it also...............not really going to matter considering the students going there.

Plus Wake is still a private college

[formerlurker]

A great deal of prestigious colleges don't consider them anymore or barely consider them (Bates, Bowdoin, Providence College, Hoy Cross, Smith, WPI, Hobart and William, etc)-- and that doesn't make it easier to get into the college.  They are looking for students transcripts, coupled with athletics, clubs, and community service to tip the scales now. 

The SATs is a pretty antiquated system of validating the student's potential anyway. 

[Wretched Excess]

Wake dropping an SAT/ACT requirement means squat.

It's basically the same as MIT dropping it also...............not really going to matter considering the students going there.

Plus Wake is still a private college

I think MIT still requires standardized test scores for freshman admissions.  and I'm honestly not sure what being private has to do with anything

how significant a step it is in the grand scheme of things depends, I think, with what they replace the SAT with as a means of evaluating prospective students. 

[Wretched Excess]

A great deal of prestigious colleges don't consider them anymore or barely consider them (Bates, Bowdoin, Providence College, Hoy Cross, Smith, WPI, Hobart and William, etc)-- and that doesn't make it easier to get into the college.  They are looking for students transcripts, coupled with athletics, clubs, and community service to tip the scales now. 

The SATs is a pretty antiquated system of validating the student's potential anyway. 

I just disagree.  I don't know how being in the marching band tells you something that getting a 1600 on the SAT does not.  and you have to have standards of some sort;  how else are you going to compare student performance from curricula as varied and diverse as you will find across the country, or indeed, around the world?

those school that you have mentioned dropping the requirement, I am guessing, are relatively small a far as admissions go.  I would think they have their own battery of tests that they require, as well as personal interviews, & etc., & etc.

 

[Rebel]

A great deal of prestigious colleges don't consider them anymore or barely consider them (Bates, Bowdoin, Providence College, Hoy Cross, Smith, WPI, Hobart and William, etc)

Who?    

[Miss Mia]

It's a continuing part of the problem with public education.  Now not requiring at least decent test scores to get into a college?!?!   

[Wretched Excess]

It's a continuing part of the problem with public education.  Now not requiring at least decent test scores to get into a college?!?!   

or not requiring a score at all.  and they aren't exactly "dropped", they are "optional"; they are
only dropped in the sense that the requirement has been dropped.  you can provide them if you want
to.

and their admissions load is pretty small, relative to other colleges and universities.  from the WF website:

This year, Wake Forest received more than 9,000 applications and expects to enroll about 1,200 freshmen this fall.

oh, and this should be interesting, they will still provide avg test score to outside agencies that publish profiles of univerities' entering classes (also from their website):

Like other universities, Wake Forest is asked to provide standardized test score data to outside agencies.   For this data to be accurate, Wake Forest will ask students who chose not to submit scores during the admissions process to provide them after they are accepted and before they enroll at Wake Forest.

[Miss Mia]

It's a continuing part of the problem with public education.  Now not requiring at least decent test scores to get into a college?!?!   

or not requiring a score at all.  and they aren't exactly "dropped", they are optional.

and their admissions load is pretty small, relative to other colleges and universities.  from WF website:

This year, Wake Forest received more than 9,000 applications and expects to enroll about 1,200 freshmen this fall.

oh, and this should be interesting, they will still provide avg test score to outside agencies that publish profiles of univerities' entering classes (also from their website):

Like other universities, Wake Forest is asked to provide standardized test score data to outside agencies.   For this data to be accurate, Wake Forest will ask students who chose not to submit scores during the admissions process to provide them after they are accepted and before they enroll at Wake Forest.

Well in general, schools/parents are more concerned with the student getting an "A" than they are about actual learning.  I wouldn't want to go to a college that didn't take an SAT/ACT score into consideration.  I can see maybe them not relying on it a much, but not at all is just ridiculous.