SCORE OPTIONAL SCHOOLS

Standardized testing is not every student’s strong suit and some students are not strategic enough in their planning of the SAT or ACT test dates.  Some students try to put it out of site due to "fear".   For students who fall in this category. not testing early and allowing enough time to apply early or retest for strong scores can be a drawback. 

The good news is that there are some great schools that are “score optional” schools,  which means that they do not require applicants to submit standardized testing scores to be considered for admission.  For exampke, many of the technical and arts schools do not see the ACT and SAT as good indicators of future performance, and it is now spreading over into  many larger universities and liberal arts schools who are recognizing the limitations of testing.   

Some schools believe that using the SAT and ACT in their admissions decisions give unfair advantage to students from schools or families that can afford courses in or tutors for test preparation.  Other schools believe doing away with standardized testing will help “enhance intellectual and demographic diversity". 

From a less public-spirited standpoint, becoming score-optional may also help schools raise their rankings with such institutions as The US News and World Report.   If students choose not to submit scores, their scores are likely on the lower end; if those students’ scores were not counted, the school’s overall standardized test scores would be raised, which, in turn, helps to increase their rank. 

32 of the top 100 colleges on the U.S. News & World Report liberal arts college list, including Bates, Bowdoin, Bryn Mawr, Hamilton and Smith, no longer require every applicant to submit an SAT or ACT score.   However, many of these score optional schools gather scores from all students after enrollment, including those who did not submit scores for admission, and submit inflated scores to US News and other organizations that don’t include scores from students who did not submit them during the admissions process.  A slightly sneaky way to up their rankings?

 If you are thinking a school like this MIGHT be for you,  we urge students to send scores that are strong even to those score optional schools to which they apply.  For those students who do not have scores sent,  there are a good number of excellent schools across the country that do not penalize you for submitting an application without standardized test results. Some of these schools interact with TOP TIER schools, such as Middlebury, Mount Holyoke, and Pitzer.

We want to give you a new of direction to entertain if the score optional scenario option is appealing and  the top tier schools are not for you.   Jay Matthews, a reporter for the Washington Post wrote an interesting piece about the topic: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/class-struggle/2009/07/what_the_sat-optional_colleges.html.     While this is an interesting article it is important to keep in the back of your mind that the Washington Post owns Kaplan – one of the largest test tutoring companies, and his ideas may be tainted.

The following list of schools is an abridged version of the list of SAT score optional schools.  This list includes accredited, bachelor-degree granting colleges and universities that DO NOT emphasize the use of standardized tests by making admissions decisions about substantial numbers of applicants who recently graduated from US high schools without using the SAT or ACT.

                Bard College                                               Ohio State Universities

                Bates College                                             Oregon State University – Corvallis

                Bowdoin College                                        Pitzer College

                College of the Atlantic                              Rollins College

                Concordia University                                Smith College

                California State Universities                     South Dakota State University

                Denison University                                    Susquehanna University

                Dickinson College                                       Texas A&M

                Drew University                                         University of Alaska

                Franklin and Marshall College                     University of Arkansas

                George Mason University                          University of Idaho at Moscow

                Gettysburg College                                      University of Kansas at Lawrence

                Goddard College                                          University of Maine

                Goucher College                                           University of Minnesota

                Hampshire College                                       University of Mississippi

                Hobart and William Smith Colleges            University of Montana

                Kansas State University                             University of Nebraska

                Knox College                                                 University of Nevada at Las Vegas and Reno

                Lake Forest College                                     University of Texas

                Lewis and Clark College                              Ursinus College

                Middlebury College                                    Wake Forest University

                Mount Holyoke                                           Washington College

                Muhlenberg College                                   Western Kentucky University

                Nazareth College                                         Wheaton College

                New School                                                 Wittenberg University

                Northern Arizona University                     Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI)