Currents

ACT and SAT: Optional?

Volume 7 / Issue 1 / Fall 2006

Will universities stop requiring students to submit an SAT or ACT score as part of their application? Some universities are finding that scores on these tests are poor predictors of collegiate success.

George Mason University in Virginia indicates they are no longer requiring applicants with at least a 3.5 GPA and who are in the top 20 percent of their graduating class to submit SAT scores. Many other private colleges and universities are following suit—Providence College, Hobart College, William Smith College, and Hamilton College. Visit www.fairtest.org for a listing of over 730, four-year colleges that have de-emphasized standardized test scores in their admission’s decisions. Don’t let the large number fool you though, many of the schools on this list have never required SAT or ACT scores. Some feel the decision to make such tests an optional component of the admission’s process is a bad idea as high schools all grade differently, but the SAT or ACT is the same everywhere.