Quote:
Originally Posted by Lupine
I'm a private admissions counselor in a group practice. This year, nearly 60% of our students applied to college without test scores. We did not see unexpected results. Top students with large numbers of AP and/or IB courses with high grades, strong extracurricular activities, and (presumably) strong recommendations still got into highly selective colleges. Good students who tossed applications at highly selective colleges didn't get admitted. We have lots of students who apply to the University of California campuses. That system was test blind this year via a court order. Again, we didn't see unexpected results.
Most colleges that are test blind (will not look at scores) or test-optional (will consider if submitted) will still look at AP/IB scores. They also look at awards and recognitions from national and regional competitions, like the National Latin Exam, American Mathematics Exam, National History Day, Science Fairs, and so on.
We tell our students that when you apply test-optional, that just means that all other parts of your application get more scrutiny.
Based on working with hundreds of college applicants, just about anyone willing to spend $2500-$4000 on individual test prep can legitimately raise an ACT score from 23 to 30 or higher. Gains on the SAT are harder, especially for applicants without strong reading skills and vocabulary. We don't do test prep, but we keep in touch with folks who do a good job, and we see what money and time can buy. We also know the process that needs to be followed at high schools in our area to qualify and get approved for extended time. Many lower-income students who ought to qualify for extended time based on ADD or other learning disabilities never get that because they don't know to ask and their guidance counselors have huge caseloads.
I'm unconvinced that the SAT or ACT adds a lot of value, especially since money can (and does) buy prep that can achieve just about any desired score. There are cram schools in some cities where a few weeks of prep results in more than half the students earning 1500 or higher on the SAT.
What we did see this year is that less selective colleges (and most of the colleges in America are less selective) are under-enrolled for this fall and that hundreds are still accepting applicants for fall admissions. I made inquiries two weeks ago for a student with a radical change of plan, and seven of the nine less selective colleges I checked were still quietly accepting applications for engineering, though only three were on the space available list published by NACAC.
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From a Parent perspective I've noticed all of this as well. My oldest applied to two less selective colleges as back-ups (and because they were test runs for filling out the applications and he had 'apply for free" codes). he has been bombarded with emails and letters from those schools saying "you didn't start here, but you can finish here!". One of his acquaintances that didn't get into one of those schools for fall semester received a similar message from the college and he transferred at the semester break.
as for no recs, I think recs are helpful. They are not make or break for us though. We don't have our pledge class 100% selected before recruitment even starts. The best "recs" we get are the No-recs. The danger ahead recs.