While the American Bar Association’s Section of Legal Education and Admissions has hit ”pause” on deciding whether to allow law schools to make admission tests optional, there may still be ways around the LSAT.
During the council of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar’s hybrid meeting in Chicago on Friday, Bill Adams, managing director of ABA accreditation and legal education, said that the question of whether to make law schools test-optional is simply on hold—no permanent decision has been reached other than Council voting in May not to send the proposal back to the House of Delegates.
CSU’s Board of Trustees voted Tuesday to eliminate using standardized tests like the SAT and ACT for admission to its 23 campuses.
The 23-campus system — the nation’s largest public university system — became the latest to remove the standardized testing requirement and replace it with a so-called multifactor admission score that allows colleges to consider 21 factors. Those factors include work experience, leadership roles, extracurricular activities and special status such as foster youth, first-generation or military.
As of March 1, more than 1,820 four-year colleges and universities, including the University of California, have eliminated the SAT or ACT from admission requirements, according to the National Center for Fair and Open Testing.
Advocates for underrepresented students had argued that the standardized tests discriminated against them.
“This decision aligns with the California State University’s continued efforts to level the playing field and provide greater access to a high-quality college degree for students from all backgrounds,” said Acting Chancellor Steve Relyea. “In essence, we are eliminating our reliance on a high-stress, high-stakes test that has shown negligible benefit and providing our applicants with greater opportunities to demonstrate their drive, talents and potential for college success.”
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The Arts faculty will conduct its entrance tests from September 4 to 8, whereas the science faculty will hold admission tests from September 7 to 9. The tentative date for declaration of results for Arts subjects is September 21 while the results of the science subjects will likely be declared on September 15. tnn
UMass Lowell accepts self-reported SAT and ACT scores. Here's what you need to know:
The UMass Lowell Office of Undergraduate Admissions remains committed to a fair application review process. Please feel free to contact us by email at admissions@uml.edu if you have any additional questions or concerns.
Higher education faculty say many college and university students experienced disruptive “learning loss” during the pandemic, and its aftermath lingers.
Additionally, education industry representatives indicate that loss kept expanding because it was fairly straightforward to resume learning after the pandemic shutdown, but was very hard to accelerate it.
Recognizing the struggles students were having in the academic landscape during the pandemic, many colleges and universities moved to being “test optional” for requiring college and career readiness test results from the SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test) and ACT (American College Testing).
When an institution designates itself as “test optional,” a student’s SAT or ACT results are only considered if the student submits those test scores during the application process.
The SAT was launched in 1926, and the ACT test was introduced in 1959. So, what’s happened to these two time-honored traditions since the immediate post-pandemic period?
Presently, Webster University is still a test-optional institution. At the time of application, students may decide whether they wish for ACT or SAT scores to be considered for admission. For students submitting test scores as part of their application file, Webster University will accept self-reported test scores.
Freshman applicants can list test scores on their Common Application, and these test scores will meet the requirement for admission. All freshman admitted, and who ultimately enroll at Webster University, must submit official test scores prior to the start of their first term. Official test scores will be required prior to the start of the term for reporting purposes. Scores listed on an official high school transcript are considered official.
Truman State University is remaining test optional through fall 2023, too.
Washington University adopted a test-optional policy for applicants through 2024. If applicants select to submit scores, standardized SAT and ACT tests are accepted, according to the university’s website.
At Saint Louis University, ACT and SAT scores also are still optional. Applicants may submit test scores as part of their application, but “students who don’t will not be disadvantaged in any way,” SLU’s website promises.
University of Missouri campuses also extended the “Test-Optional Admissions” pilot program for students applying to enter through 2024.
Southeast Missouri State University is a test-optional school as well. No essay is required either, according to the university’s website.
Harris-Stowe State University is test-optional, too. The university’s website indicates applicants can submit either the ACT or SAT score for additional scholarship consideration, and that “superscoring is the process by which colleges consider your highest section scores across all the dates you took the SAT or ACT.”
Lindenwood University also is a test-optional institution. Lindenwood’s website states the policy allows officials “to consider strengths other than standardized test scores.”
Admission decisions at Fontbonne University are based on applicants’ grades in high school. Fontbonne’s online literature asserts that ACT/SAT scores are not required for admission or scholarships, however TOEFL [Test of English as a Foreign Language] exam scores may be required for international applicants.
St. Louis Community College-Forest Park requires for admission the completion of an untimed computerized placement test, high school GPA and other measures to determine the course work that would be best for each accepted student.
An up-to-date transcript showing courses completed in the home school or Christian high school curriculum, and listing grades for those courses, is required for Missouri Baptist University admission. While an ACT/SAT composite score is not a requirement for admission to Missouri Baptist, admission staffers there indicate that it does help with course placement.
At Southern Illinois University, the admissions process states that university officials know “the best indicator of college success is how hard you worked in high school, not how well you scored on a test. That’s why we no longer require submission of SAT or ACT scores for students with a high school GPA of 2.75 or above.”
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