<p>Just checked the Lawrence University website, and they have announced those applying next year (class of 06), neither the SAT nor the ACT will be required. Has anyone heard of any others jumping off the testing bandwagon?</p>
<p>OH WOW. That's very interesting news Firefly - thanks for sharing!!!!</p>
<p>Good for Lawrence!!</p>
<p>I hope this is the start of something....but don't get me started!!!</p>
<p>this is indeed good news
<a href="http://www.fairtest.org/%5B/url%5D">http://www.fairtest.org/</a></p>
<p>There have always been quite a few open admission colleges, a few of which are four-year colleges unlike the community colleges that make up most of the list of open admission colleges. I have checked the list of SAT-optional colleges in the past, and MOST were open admission colleges of one kind or another. A few selective colleges that don't require admission test scores evidently select on the basis of high school grades (which, to my mind, can be a much less fair and much arbitrary way of rating students than admission tests), essays (which I think are a very sound selection criterion, but possibly subject to ghost-writing), ECs (also a good criterion with possible verification issues), or perhaps other criteria (legacy status?). </p>
<p>But very few of the SAT-optional colleges are selective or highly sought after. I spoke to the Lawrence University representative the last time I visited my town's NACAC National College Fair, and while I wouldn't dissuade someone else from attending, it isn't what my family is looking for in a college. </p>
<p>Good luck in your college search and application process.</p>
<p>The full article is worth reading on the Lawrence website front page. They state that although test scores provide one bit of information in the selection process," that added tidbit is not commensurate with the financial and emotional costs to students," said Syverson, who has been directing admissions operations at Lawrence since 1983."</p>
<p>
[quote]
But very few of the SAT-optional colleges are selective or highly sought after.
[/quote]
True. But Bowdoin - one of the highest ranked (#7; always in top ten), oldest (founded 1794) , and most selective liberal arts colleges in the country, has been SAT-optional for many years. I believe that considering the entire high school career is more fair and less arbitrary than relying too heavily on the results of one three-hour multiple choice test. </p>
<p>Somehow Nathaniel Hawthorne, Franklin Pierce, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Joshua Chamberlain managed to do OK despite not submitting SAT scores! ;)</p>
<p>EDIT:On another thread, Kirmun said he/she got into Harvard with a 1000 SAT and went on to a 4.0 average plus superhigh LSAT scores. Good thing in that instance, Harvard ignored the scores. Scores predict very little.</p>
<p>Here's another story to think about. My best friend from childhood (my son is named after him) grew up in working-class home, arguably "middle-class" but a good bit poorer than I was growing up, with no college-educated relatives. He was a smart kid, who always read a lot. He did well, but not phenomenally, on his SATs, at a level you'd expect from a kid who'd been a PSAT commended student the year before. (In our day, no one in our region of the country did any test prep for the SAT other than reading the free test manual from the College Board.) </p>
<p>He went into a local open admission community college, mostly for financial reasons, and studied there two years. While there he met his wife, another very smart person from a somewhat more secure middle-class background. He and she transfered to the state flagship university, which I had entered directly as a freshman, and compiled a fine academic record (finishing as "all but dissertation" in an engineering field). He worked for one top engineering company in town for two decades, designing part of a renowned new product, and then jumped ship and changed industries when the first company became a takeover target. Now he has significant responsibility at an even more renowned company, making products that literally save people's lives. </p>
<p>My friend attended a school that would admit ANYBODY. He has a good job, a fine family, and a great reputation among all who know him. There are already a lot of schools that are just as obscure and unknown to CCers as the community college that he started out at. For a learner like my friend, there is no lack of doors to enter that can get one on the path to personal success. (I explicitly tell my son to imitate the man he is named after rather than to imitate me in career planning.) But do be sure to turn off the TV (my best friend grew up without a TV in his house, because his dad thought it was a waste of time) and learn something in whatever environment you are in, and achieve at every opportunity.</p>
<p>Mount Holyoke stopped requiring SAT scores at least four years ago. They did require applicants to submit essays and also graded papers with teachers' comments. If I remember correctly, it was to be a trial for X number of years. It would be interesting to know how the colleges like Mount Holyoke and Bowdoin that have eliminated the SAT/ACT requirements for several years feel about their results.<br>
I am pleased with Lawrence's decision. SAT/ACT prep. has gone over the top.</p>
<p>Sarah Lawrence College in NY announced last year that they would not require the SAT any more after the new test was introduced.</p>
<p>While on the audition trail with my son this fall, I met a number of very talented, young men and women who not only had trained in the aspects of theatre, dance and music but had excellent grades. Some also were academic picks with high SATs and tough AP like courses, but a number of them had entered programs after freshman year allowing them to pursue their interests and talents more fully so they would not have the top of the line courses, though they excelled in every course they took. Some of these kids also did not have top level SATs. Again some of them did not put in the time to study as much for the SATs as the auditions for their program of interest was the main indicator for entry. But, I have found that even these schools scrutinize the SAT and use it to cull for admissions purposes. A number of the kids were cut at admissions for low SATs. It seems to me that there are situations, particularly in schools with an artistic bent where the resume, portfolio is a better indicator along with the academic record than the SATs. I applaud Lawrence's decision.</p>
<p>California Institute of the Arts (or CalArts) also does not require the SAT/ACT. According to the CollegeBoard, their acceptance rate is 16% and their major criteria is talent/ability and essay.</p>
<p>Dickinson, Conn. College, Colby, Lewis & Clark and now Lawrence plus the others mentioned above - there are MANY "highly selective" and top colleges that have an SAT optional program - I think it is a positive trend myself. Lawrence has been mentioned by many here as having a wonderful admissions team who really takes the time to get to know the individual applicant. If Lawrence were located in the Northeast, it would be highly ranked - it is an excellent school.</p>