As of the fall 2010 semester, Fairfield will join a select group of universities nationwide that no longer require students to submit standardized testing for admission.
Under the new policy, prospective students will no longer need to submit SAT/ACT scores when applying. Should they choose not to submit the standardized tests, they will be ‘strongly encouraged’ to include an additional essay, according to Director of Undergraduate Admissions Karen Pellegrino. This essay will be specific to Fairfield and its educational goals; and while administrators have yet to decide the actual prompt, possible subjects include certain Jesuit values or the importance of living and learning.
The new policy was announced through a campus-wide e-mail Friday from University President Fr. Jeffrey von Arx, who wrote that this change is part of the University’s on-going commitment to its strategic plan.
Pellegrino said the idea to make this change has been in the mix for over a year and a half between administrators and admissions counselors.
‘In a lot of ways, declaring Fairfield University to be SAT-optional is just formalizing what we have been doing for the last five years,’ Pellegrino said.
With this initiative, Fairfield joins a handful of other colleges that have adopted SAT-optional policies including Bowdoin,’ Holy’ Cross,’ Dickinson, Providence and Wake’ Forest.
The administration offered philosophical and practical explanations for the switch.
‘By making SAT scores optional, we are bringing our admission procedures more consistently into line with our strategic vision,’ von Arx wrote in the e-mail.
The more practical explanation, which von Arx also cited in the e-mail announcement, recognized that standardized tests sometimes fail to be an unbiased and fair predictor of one’s intelligence.
But many students are concerned with how the student body will be affected.
‘SATs are necessary because they create an equal judgment base across the board. It’s the same test for everyone,’ said Krissi Gorsuch ’12.
Many students agree that high school transcripts and GPAs, while they are telling of a student’s ability, can often be deceptive. A high GPA or the quality of curriculum at one high school could vary from school to school, and yet look exactly the same on paper. The SATs, on the other hand, give a specific numerical value, a grade on one’s ability in a subject.
In response, Pellegrino said that Admissions plans to continue to weigh’ the SATs that are submitted, as has been done in recent years. In addition, she explained that admissions tries to sift through grade inflation and find common judging ground through’ ‘analyzing the quality of curriculum; for example, what level courses were offered, if the student took advantage of the given opportunities, grade distribution for certain courses, among other steps.’
Admissions predicts that by making SATs optional, Fairfield may begin to attract a more diverse student applicant pool. Pellegrino said that this was not the main reason for making the switch, but it could become an added benefit.
The extra work load for admissions counselors was also a concern, but Pellegrino said that Fairfield may need to expand its number of application readers and that it might hire part-time readers with experience in guidance counseling.
Another area of concern is college rankings and ratings. U.S News and World Report Best Colleges, one of the most widely used college ranking systems, uses standardized test scores as one of its basis for ranking.
Pellegrino said that this is probably, ‘the biggest area of concern,’ among alumni and others who disagree with the new policy. But Pellegrino argued that in reality, Fairfield’s ranking would not be influenced.
‘Look at other colleges of similar caliber that have [switched to SAT optional]. They have not seen a decline; in fact, they have seen a more diverse applicant pool,’ Pellegrino said.
Another possibility is that Fairfield’s rankings could go up, as applicants with higher SAT scores are more likely to submit their scores, creating the possibility of higher reported numbers. Administrators are debating having students report their scores after admissions decisions are made in order to have numbers for rankings.
‘As long as Fairfield will continue to admit a high-quality student and not become more lax with their admissions, I don’t really mind the optional SAT,’ said Sam Bremer ’12.
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