Ripon College Days

The moment has finally come, and the results are about to be revealed. Family awaits the news and your heartbeat quickens. With all the studying you did, it feels as if your entire future rides on this one test score. Deep breath, rip open the envelope, and there it is, staring you in the face, your ACT score.

Many students stress over the ACT and SAT, but several colleges have made the choice to get rid of these test scores. Due to research about the relevance of test scores, for some schools the necessity of ACT and SAT scores has become less and less relevant for admission. Lawrence University in Appleton, Wis. is one of the first schools in the area to agree with this idea and eliminate the requirement of test scores for admission and hopes to make a possible trend.

Steven Syverson, dean of admissions and financial aid at Lawrence University says, "We think the test scores have become so overemphasized that the amount of value to the admission office is so trivial compared to the amount of stress and money."

According to Syverson, Lawrence had many different reasons for making this decision. "Its not that we think there is no value in predicting success," says Syverson.

For Lawrence, the test scores do not seem to make much of a prediction as to how a student will perform. "We look at a lot of things to admit a student, and for our kind of institutions these tests are not particularly good indicators of what will happen in the classroom experience," says Syverson.

Lawrence is not the first school to make this decision to eliminate test scores. "We've been talking about it for a couple years," says Syverson.

In fact, part of the decision is based off of research done by Bates College, which has been without the requirement for 20 years now.

According to a presentation of a 20-year retrospective study, by William C. Hiss '66, Vice President for External Affairs and Prem R. Neupane '05, the question of how predictive the tests are often comes up.

Based off past numbers, the difference between the grades of those who take and submit the tests to the college (although not required) is very minimal. The presentation stated that over the 20-year history of the policy, the difference in Bates GPAs between submitters and non-submitters is a mere .05 of a GPA point.

Not only is this issue thought about by colleges, but also by high school administrators.

Associate Principal of Grafton High School, Keith Hilts has not heard much about the idea of dropping ACT and SAT scores as a requirement, so he is unsure of where to stand on the issue.

Hilts says, "I've heard that the ACT is a fairly accurate predictor of how students will do in college, so if you eliminate the test, how would a public school then assess how students are really doing?"

PBS Frontline has been inspecting precisely this issue, but with the SAT Test in particular. Called "Secrets of the SAT," Frontline examines the controversy of its reliability, as well as fairness on campus by studying University of California, Berkeley.

Berkeley too is shifting away from test numbers and focusing more on a better rounded evaluation of the applicants.

This is the approach that Lawrence is taking as well.

"We look at a lot of things to admit a student. Once you are above the bar of being successful, having the test scores doesn't really do much," says Syverson.

For example, Lawrence looks at areas of talent in music, athletics, and creativity.

"Lawrence being a private school is probably more student friendly, providing more appropriate matters to determine," says Hilts.

It is easier for private schools such as Lawrence to use this because of the wide variety of people who apply.

"There are some institutions that it might be bad for. But for the liberal arts colleges like us, it really resonates well to this kind of environment," says Syverson.

Since Ripon and Lawrence, two ACM colleges, are very similar it seems to make sense that maybe Ripon will one day follow in theses footsteps. In fact Ripon has thought about this idea before.

Assistant Dean of Admission, Brooke Konopacki says, "It was something we talked about here in different arenas."

While Ripon has not made an action towards this topic, it is still a possibility in years to come.

"I am strong believer in having research to support a decision as significant as that. It is definitely something to be considered," says Konopacki.

While as of now Lawrence is alone in its decision in the region, Syverson hopes that "maybe we will start a trend."

"We could lower the stress of the whole admission process if a lot of schools did this," says Syverson.

Both Konopacki and Syverson agree that it will be interesting to see if other colleges will jump on board.

"We are a small voice, but if we get a batch of schools doing it, we can have a louder voice," says Syverson.

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