Wake Forest University Drops SAT Requirement
If you apply to a school that doesn’t require SAT scores, chances are it’s a liberal arts college. Smith College announced this month that they are now an SAT-optional school. This is a big deal and is an encouraging step in the right direction; I’m a firm disbeliever in the accuracy of standardized testing. I’m very, very happy about Smith’s decision to no longer require SAT scores on their admission applications.
In no way am I lessening the awesomeness of Smith College’s pronouncement, but it’s incredibly exciting that a high profile non-liberal arts university has also announced it’s decision to make SAT scores optional. Wake Forest University receives over 9,000 applications every year. They just increased their admissions department by twenty percent so as to better deal with the influx of admission applications (which is predicted to increase after the SAT-optional announcement).
You can read Inside Higher Ed’s great article here—it goes into all the details behind the decision. And you can go here to read the list FairTest keeps of all schools that don’t require standardized test scores on their applications. I’m going to bask in the glow of hopeful optimism that I will live to see the eventual demise of standardized testing.
Posted by Alexa Harrington
