Students’ Paths to Small Colleges Can Bypass SAT - New York Times

Students’ Paths to Small Colleges Can Bypass SAT - New York Times: "August 31, 2006
Students’ Paths to Small Colleges Can Bypass SAT
By TAMAR LEWIN

It is still far too early to sound the death knell, but for many small liberal arts colleges, the SAT may have outlived its usefulness.

Since Bowdoin and Bates dropped their testing requirements decades ago, more than a fourth of U.S. News & World Report’s Top 100 liberal arts colleges have made admissions exams optional, and new ones are joining the list at a quickening pace.

The new colleges include Mount Holyoke, Middlebury, Hamilton, Union and Dickinson. In recent months, George Mason, Providence College and Hobart and William Smith Colleges have also become test-optional.

Admissions officers said eliminating the testing requirement had increased both the size and diversity of their applicant pools, and bolstered their reputation as places personal enough to consider each applicant individually.

At the same time, the revamped, longer SAT, the drop in average scores announced Tuesday and recent problems with scoring have created growing disenchantment. College officials also say that tests — whether the SAT, or in the Midwest, the ACT — are not the best predictors of performance.

“Test scores are a much weaker predictor of how students will do in college"