FALL 2001 • VOLUME
6, NUMBER 2
Mount
Holyoke's Decision to Downplay the SAT
BY
KEVIN MCCAFFREY
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BEN
BARNHART
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Yanitsa
Hristova '05, one of MHC's first-years who opted not to rely
on SAT scores to gain admission to the College. |
Ashley
Goodrich-Mahoney ’05 was a superb student in high school. Her
grades were excellent, she captained the varsity tennis team,
and her extracurricular activities included establishing a chapter
of the American Red Cross at her school, running her own catering
business, and interning at Amnesty International. But when it
came to the SAT, Goodrich-Mahoney says, “I did not feel that my
scores reflected my grade point average or were indicative of
my academic abilities.”
Julia
Hoffman ’05 and Yanitsa Hristova ’05 found themselves in the same
boat. Both were high-achieving students with extensive extracurricular
activities who felt their SAT scores did not accurately reflect
their potential for success at college. Says Hoffman, “I am not
good at taking standardized tests. I took a test prep course and
I still did not do well in relation to my expected score. The
tests do not measure much beyond how well you take tests.”
Over
the past few years, standardized tests, particularly the SAT,
have come under fire from educators and business leaders who,
like Goodrich-Mahoney, Hoffman, and Hristova, question the long-term
predictive value and fairness of these measures. Many have pointed
to possible cultural, ethnic, racial, gender, and class biases
in the SAT. And the proliferation of for-profit test-prep courses
has raised questions about economic inequity, as well.
Last
year, in light of these and other concerns, Mount Holyoke made
submission of standardized test scores optional for students,
beginning with those seeking admission for 2001–2002. Although
the College was already de-emphasizing the test in favor of a
thorough and individualized admission review process--one that
emphasized a student’s high school performance, writing, intellectual
curiosity, leadership, creativity, civic engagement, and social
conscience--the formal decision to make submission optional thrust
the College into an ongoing national debate on the value of standardized
testing.
Mount
Holyoke received overwhelmingly supportive feedback from educators,
students, and guidance counselors. National newspaper articles
and editorials focused on the College’s new policy. President
of the College Joanne V. Creighton, who has written editorials
and articles on the SAT for a variety of publications, fielded
questions in an online discussion sponsored by the Washington
Post. Time magazine profiled how the admission office was evaluating
applications without the test.
Early
indications are that the evaluation process went extremely well.
This year’s incoming class is one of the strongest in Mount Holyoke’s
history and was selected from the largest number of applicants
to the College ever. While 24 percent of them chose to hold back
their SAT scores, the students in the incoming class mirror last
year’s newcomers in terms of key academic indicators such as average
high school grade point average (3.62 for both classes) and class
rank (half the students in both classes ranked in the top 10 percent
of their high
school classes).
“Reviewing
the applications from submitters and nonsubmitters has convinced
me that students who chose not to submit scores match students
who did, step for step,” says Diane Anci, dean of admission. “I
think we’ve realized our hope that we would draw students who
are highly qualified for admission, but who, in the past, may
have decided not to apply because they felt their scores did not
meet Mount Holyoke’s standards.” In conversation with accepted
students, Anci learned that a number of them had high scores but
had chosen to block them as a matter of principle.
Supported
by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the College has developed
a plan to study how the SAT-optional policy affects admission
trends at Mount Holyoke and whether there will be any difference
in the academic success of submitters and nonsubmitters over the
next five years. “We already knew that standardized tests do not
give us much information about the range of intellectual and motivational
talents we look for in students,” notes Jane Brown, Mount Holyoke’s
vice president for enrollment and College relations. “The question
we want to look at is whether de-emphasizing the SAT will affect
our applicant pool or the high success rates of our matriculants.”
The
Mount Holyoke study will help policy makers understand what role
standardized tests play in admission decisions for highly selective
schools. Many await the results with interest. Earlier this year,
the test received national attention when the president of the
University of California’s public university system recommended
that the SAT be replaced. Soon thereafter, the National Urban
League also criticized the test. Its survey of 200 Fortune 1000
business executives found that most ranked communication, leadership,
and character as far more important than standardized test scores
in for success.
As
Goodrich-Mahoney, who was elected hall senator after her second
week at the College, participates in a special honors seminar
for first-year students; Julia Hoffman creates theater sets with
a faculty member who is an internationally known set designer;
and Yanitsa Hristova trys her hand at creating art with charcoal
for the first time, their SAT scores don’t seem to matter much.
And that’s the point.
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