SGA to weigh in on relevance of SAT scores in admissions

Universities across the country have debated the merits of continuing to use the SAT as an admissions factor for years, and tomorrow, the SGA will tackle the issue.

Arts and Humanities legislator Kenton Stalder will bring a bill to the Student Government Association at tomorrow's weekly meeting suggesting the university do away with considering the SAT for admission. But admissions representatives said regardless of how the SGA moves on the issue, they have no plans to eliminate the requirement.

Stalder said the SAT disadvantages low-income students who can't afford tutoring and otherwise don't have the resources to prepare for the test.

"It's like holding your hand on the head of a drowning kid and saying, ‘Hey, you can't come up here, this isn't for you,'" said Stalder, who admitted that convincing the university to eliminate the SAT admissions requirement has long been a goal of his. "It's just not right. It's unjust and it should be changed."

Stalder isn't the only one who thinks the test is unfair. SAT skepticism has abounded in recent years: Last spring, New York University announced they would accept three SAT subject tests or three Advanced Placement tests instead of the exam, while Connecticut College went entirely test-optional around the same time. This week, Ursinus College became the latest school to go test-optional; officials had concerns about the correlation between family income and scores, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Ursinus and Connecticut have joined the ranks of Middlebury College, Wake Forest University, Bowdoin College and other schools in eliminating the SAT requirement entirely — something Stalder hopes to achieve for the entire university system.

Stalder's main point of contention is the socioeconomic breakdown of score data.

"The gap isn't just between the impoverished and the super-rich," he said, citing College Board SAT score data from 2008.

The College Board data shows that across the board — writing, critical reading and mathematics— the lower the family income, the lower the score. Between the highest income bracket and the lowest, there is a 449-point difference in overall score.

"It's incred ible and it's unacceptable," Stalder said of the gap.

But Director of Undergraduate Admissions Shannon Gundy says the university's use of SAT scores in evaluating applicants is done responsibly, and with the understanding that the SAT is not a "perfect measure."

"We look at more than two dozen factors that could influence our admissions decisions," Gundy said. "We do consider all of the information that we have," including socioeconomic status, she said.

Though the College Board added the writing section of the SAT in an attempt to quell criticism of the test's success in measuring aptitude, this university doesn't consider the SAT essay in the admissions process — nor does it look at subject tests, another measure taken to provide a fuller picture of students' academic capabilities.

"Every school uses the tools they think are helpful for them in making their admission decisions," she said. "We need to have an objective measure that sort of gives us an opportunity to have some level comparison of students across the board... the SAT allows us to do that."

But Stalder said the university's emphasis on SAT scores discourages students with lower scores from applying, keeping the applicant pool from being diverse.

He hopes the SGA will vote to change that.

"This is the first step toward raising awareness on our campus and in our state," he said.

aisaacs@umdbk.com