WINSTON-SALEM N.C.
If you’re one of those students afraid standardized test scores don’t paint the full picture of your potential, your options are growing. More and more colleges don’t require the SAT or ACT exams.
Wake Forest and Smith just admitted their first class of applicants who could decline to submit SAT or ACT scores, while Sewanee and Fairfield will do the same next year.
But is the “test optional” movement gaining steam, or running out of it?
That was a big question hanging over a college admissions conference hosted by Wake Forest this past week. The answer could come in the next few weeks as colleges set their policies for next year’s admissions cycle.
So far, several hundred colleges have gone test-optional for at least some students, including a small but growing number of more selective liberal arts schools.
“I don’t know if you can tell a tipping point until after it’s happened, but it’s very close,” said Bob Schaeffer, the gadfly testing critic who heads the group FairTest. He said he’s heard from at least a dozen very selective institutions reviewing their admissions policies and expects more to drop testing requirements this spring.
