The Admissions Game

<p>During Parents' Weekend at my daughter's BS, I attended a college workshop presentation called The Admissions Game. It was interactive, with the audience split into 4 groups, as make-believe AOs, each group representing one of 4 fictitious college applicants. We examined the apps and talked about their attributes, pondered things we didn't quite get (i.e., why is this senior taking a basic level language course? To get a high grade? Or was there another motivation, like, they were preparing for a community service trip to South America and needed basic Spanish as a result). In the end, we had to vote to decide which of the 4 would be admitted. The speaker was Peter van Buskirk -- he is a former AD at Franklin & Marshall and at another school which I can't recall... it was a very enlightening and engaging presentation. One thing he mentioned which I had never heard of: there are 850+ colleges and universities which now have an "SAT-optional" application process. Some of the schools are quite selective. The list is on FairTest.org . As the parent of a child who is a very strong student and not a strong standardized test taker (SSAT was a disaster), I felt like doing the dance of joy! I was already starting to worry about those SATs. </p>

<p>What do y'all think about this -- has anyone had experience with their child applying to a test-optional college?</p>

<p>The ‘test optional’ application is a win-win strategy for schools to game their USNWR ranking. Since the students who report their scores w be disproportionately those students w higher scores, this inflates the avg SAT score for the school. The strategy also attracts more applicants, thereby reducing the admit rate and enhancing the school’s apparent selectivity.</p>

<p>Yes, many of the colleges that my daughter was interested in were SAT optional. She did quite well on the test so she submitted her scores. The schools she was interested in were small liberal arts, “progressive” yet highly selective schools. These schools tend to take a more holistic view of the admissions process and require interviews so they have more substance than simply numbers to evaluate.</p>

<p>If you’re not submitting the scores to the test optional colleges, you are submitting extremely high gpa.</p>

<p>Agree with GMT…while the schools tell us they are more holistic than schools that require testing, the test optional trend is USNWR driven. Test scores are just one piece of the puzzle, and most schools take a holistic view (or why would we see the students with 4.0s and perfect SAT’s turned away from selective schools?). That said, I’ll be playing that game too with my second son, who also tends to not do well on standardized tests.</p>

<p>For those interested, [thread=1522552]Test Optional Schools?[/thread] is being discussed on the college forum currently.</p>

<p>Thanks so much for this post. As a mom with a kid in both games, one applying to HS and one applying to college, I am overwhelmed. My eldest is also not a strong test taker and despite her 3.9 and upper level courses (her BS doesn’t offer AP, they hire college profs to come teach college accredited courses) she is in a total panic about getting into some colleges due to her test scores. She has looked at some test optional places, but none, to my knowledge, has her really excited. </p>

<p>This really interested me as your example listed a basic level language course their senior year. That is what my daughter is doing, she is taking spanish 2 as a senior, because she took the AP French exam as a sophomore and started a new language once completed. I will say she took it online since I did say her school didn’t offer AP’s. Was there an answer for this riddle? I know the college admittance people get a copy of her transcript, but when you are reading your share of 40 thousand of them (in some cases) those things can be overlooked and when I am depending on the weight of the rest of her app to carry her (since her test scores are mediocre) I want to make sure that the rest of it shines. :)</p>

<p>THanks</p>

<p>@ lestouffer: We had to really dig into the app to find the mention of the senior’s plan to spend time doing volunteer work in South America. Once we understood that, it made sense that the kid was trying to learn some basic Spanish. So I guess if there’s a situation like that, it should be clearly mentioned in the app so the AOs don’t have to wonder about it… My d is a BS freshman so I haven’t yet bought van Buskirk’s book on “Winning the College Admissions Game” – but I hear that it is a very helpful resource, since he writes from the perspective of a college AD for 20+ years. My d’s school has been bringing him to Parents Weekend for the last few years as a speaker, and a lot of parents have attended the presentation more than once.</p>