Should Colleges Continue to be Test-Optional?
Imagine you wake up to your dog staring down at you, your face coated in dog slobber and you soon realize that your alarm never went off. You rush to get ready and run downstairs for breakfast. Your little sister ate the bagel you made for yourself the night before so your only option is to eat a bag of chips. You grab your keys and head outside, where you find out your car battery is dead. So you call for your mom to give you a ride. Once you get to the testing site you realize you forgot your calculator and your number 2 pencils in your car. Thankfully your mom has an extra pencil, but now you are LATE. You barely make it in the door before the test starts. Now for the next four hours, six if you have a learning disability, you will take a test that defines where you will go to college. A college that defines who you are and what you do for the rest of your life.
Do you think that is fair? One test defines who you are and where you will go. I don’t think that’s fair or just. In fact, that sounds like torture to me. As a student with a learning disability, standardized testing might be my biggest fear. My first encounter with standardized testing was in elementary school when I took a test we called the ERBs. I vividly remember sitting at my desk for the first 30 minutes of the test just staring at the test cover, wondering what ERB even stood for and what I would be gaining from taking this test as a 4th grader. Looking back on it I still have no idea what ERB stands for. But I do remember the feeling of failure when I got my test results back. I had scored in the fourth percentile in math, which means if you line up 100 people who took the test, I would be fourth from the bottom.
After getting over the trauma of taking the ERBs I soon found out I needed to take a similar test to get into high school and college. When I took the SAT, I scored a 980 which put me in the bottom 36th percentile nationally out of 1.7 million test-takers. I had the same feelings of failure that I felt in fourth grade. I always question the purpose of taking these tests and how they translate to how smart I am. For years, students’ intelligence and worth have been measured by standardized testing. However, in March 2020, many, if not all colleges were forced to go test-optional because testing centers were closed due to the COVID 19 pandemic. Schools going test-optional took huge stress out of the college process for me. By going test-optional colleges are no longer associating an applicant’s worth with how high their test scores are.
Although the pandemic prompted most colleges to go test-optional, some have not required test scores for decades. Bowdoin College was the first college to go test-optional in 1969 and Bates college went in 1984. Since then the test-optional movement in higher education formed in 2001. The movement started with the University of California and Bates College conducting studies around high school students’ grades compared to their SAT scores. Both UC and Bates found that high school students’ grades are a better indicator of college performance than SAT scores (A Brief History of the Test-Optional Movement in Higher Education). This study caught the attention of a number of selective colleges. The test-optional movement started with a collection of small liberal arts colleges but in recent years the group has grown. Additionally, many public university systems are now paying more attention to an applicant’s class rank or grades and less attention to standardized test scores (A Brief History of the Test-Optional Movement in Higher Education).
The decision to go test-optional due to COVID has impacted the college admissions process for the past two years. Many students who would have never been able to apply to top universities because of their low test scores are now putting their hats in that ring to see if they might get in based on their transcript. By not requiring test scores the college admission process is much more inclusive. Although the lack of test scores has led top-ranking schools to receive a record-breaker number of applications, the applicant pool is more diverse and equitable. Students with learning disabilities and other special needs, those without the financial means to pay for test prep or multiple tests, or students who are just weaker test-takers are no longer held back by their standardized test scores. DePaul University published A Brief History Of The Test-Optional Movement In Higher Education. The report states,
The University of Texas’ Top 10% program is a prominent example where large numbers of students have been admitted by class rank, without regard to test scores. Texas administrators verify that this admission policy has increased diversity at the flagship institution, uplifting students and families in a region that depends on expanding economic and social opportunities.
Standardized testing is one aspect of someone’s academic profile, however, their scores do not define their worth. The University of Texas has shown that test-optional admission is working and is fair.
Although test sites are back open, I think colleges should stay test-optional. If submitted, test scores should be looked at after the rest of your application. They should not be the defining factor of your acceptance or rejection. In fact, the UC school system has switched to a test-blind approach for their admissions. Test-blind admissions mean test scores won’t be considered as a part of an applicant’s evaluation. The main reason for this switch is due to a lawsuit filed by UC students that argued the University’s test-optional policy discriminates against marginalized students (Sherwood). Due to the size and reputation of the UC system, the anti-test movement has already sparked the change at many other universities.
One of the arguments for keeping test scores is so that a school’s prestige doesn’t get lowered; however, as I noted earlier, Bowdoin College was the first college to go test-optional in the late 60s. Since then they have maintained a prestigious reputation for being a top-ranked liberal arts college with an acceptance rate of 9% (Bowdoin College Acceptance Rate & Average GPA). We are also able to see the anti-test movement work in the UC system. Micheal Nietzel reports in a Forbes article on the UC admissions system,
When you have the most prestigious university system in the nation’s most populous state functioning without test scores and developing ways to do admissions fairly and accurately without them, it’s very significant. UC already is and increasingly will become a national model for test-free admissions.
UC, like Bowdoin, has proven that going test-optional can be done. There is now no excuse for not trying to go test-optional for fear of failure or lack of prestige.
The University of California and more than half of all colleges and universities in the US have already decided to continue being test-optional or test-blind for fall 2023 applicants. Additionally over “76% of all U.S. bachelor-degree granting institutions now practice test-optional or test-blind admissions” (Nietzel). The University of Texas, Bowdoin, and the UC system are just three examples of open-minded and unbiased college admissions. By going test-optional schools eliminate “possible bias against racial minorities and students from lower-income backgrounds” (Nietzel). These schools have changed their testing policies to help all students have a fair opportunity for success. Students no longer have to be defined by a number for the rest of their lives. The reputation of these schools and those who followed have started to pave the way for change in college admissions. But don’t forget about the lawsuit filed by UC students protesting against their University’s test-optional policy to create a fair admissions process for all students. You can create the change you want to see and the equal opportunity all students deserve.
Works Cited
“A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE TEST-OPTIONAL MOVEMENT IN HIGHER EDUCATION”. Offices.Depaul.Edu, 2022, https://offices.depaul.edu/enrollment-management/test-optional/Documents/HistoryOfTOinHigherEd_EMatters3-18-11.pdf.
“TEST-OPTIONAL GROWTH CHRONOLOGY 2005–2022”. Fairtest.Org, 2022, https://www.fairtest.org/sites/default/files/Optional-Growth-Chronology.pdf.
College Gazette. “Is Bowdoin College Ivy League? Ranking, Acceptance Rate, And More”. Collegegazette.Com, 2022, https://collegegazette.com/is-bowdoin-college-ivy-league-ranking-acceptance-rate-and-more/.
Gupta, Saumya. “UC To Use Test-Blind Admissions For Fall 2021 Following Court Decision — Daily Bruin”. Daily Bruin, 2022, https://dailybruin.com/2020/11/06/uc-to-use-test-blind-admissions-for-fall-2021-following-court-decision.
Kelliher, Rebecca. “Report: Test-Optional Trends In Pandemic Year For College Admissions”. Diverse: Issues In Higher Education, 2022, https://www.diverseeducation.com/students/article/15114774/report-testoptional-trends-in-pandemic-year-for-college-admissions.
Nietzel, Michael. “University Of California Reaches Final Decision: No More Standardized Admission Testing”. Forbes, 2022, https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeltnietzel/2021/11/19/university-of-california-reaches-final-decision-no-more-standardized-admission-testing/?sh=6721c2a32ec5.
Sherwood, Elizabeth. “Students File Lawsuit Against UC For Test-Optional Standardized Test Policy — Daily Bruin”. Daily Bruin, 2022, https://dailybruin.com/2020/07/23/students-file-lawsuit-against-uc-for-test-optional-standardized-test-policy.
