Word: bowdoin
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Research from colleges that have dropped the SAT requirement reinforces the notion that the test measures little. Bowdoin College, which started the SAT-optional movement in 1969, often studies how well its admissions officers predict college performance without SATs. It has repeatedly found that its rating--a numerical value assigned each applicant on the basis of GPA, essays and other factors--correlates very highly with the student's GPA at Bowdoin. Factoring in SAT scores improves that correlation only slightly. The College Board says that, across many colleges, SAT scores improve the correlation between admissions predictions and GPA realities...
...Research from colleges that have dropped the SAT requirement reinforces the notion that the test measures little. Bowdoin College, which started the sat-optional movement in 1969, often studies how well its admissions officers predict college performance without SATs. It has repeatedly found that its rating - a numerical value assigned each applicant on the basis of GPA, essays and other factors - correlates very highly with the student's GPA at Bowdoin. Factoring in SAT scores improves that correlation only slightly. The College Board says that, across many colleges, SAT scores improve the correlation between admissions predictions and GPA realities...
...means a lot on big campuses that can't afford to spend hours getting to know applicants. Even at Bowdoin, hero of the anti-testing crowd, head of admissions Richard Steele has mixed feelings about other schools' eliminating the SAT requirement. "I'm not one who would recommend this for everyone," he says, noting that Bowdoin is now "highly encouraging" one growing group of hard-to-evaluate applicants, home schoolers, to submit their SATs. "It works for us because we're only dealing with 5,000 applications, vs. 20,000 at the big schools...
...best recommendations describe a student's accomplishments with specific and knowing details. Bowdoin's admissions committee was on the fence about an applicant who had good grades but below-average test scores. Then it scanned his two recommendations. "A rare gem," said one letter; the other called him a "mature humanitarian." Most compelling, though, was a tidbit missing from the rest of the application. The student had come up with a unique scheme for supporting world-famine relief: he pledged his weekly allowance and persuaded his parents to give matching grants. Cornell readers were similarly impressed with a letter that...
...such close calls can just as easily swing the other way. Bowdoin's committee was ambivalent about one applicant until it read a last-minute addition to his file, a note saying, "Bowdoin College is at the top of my list." He was admitted...