Bowdoin - College Admission Counseling

The SAT is not Always Needed to Get into College

Jared Hobson — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 17:07:34 +0000

You don’t have to take the SAT or the ACT to get into a four-year college!
For juniors about to take the March SAT, it’s comforting to know that there are almost 850 four-year colleges known as the “Fair Test Schools” which do not require standardized tests for acceptance.
Instead of looking at the SAT or ACT, these colleges will weigh your GPA and rigor of your classes more heavily. They might also ask to see some of your academic writing.
Some of the more well-known college on the Fair Test list include the following:
American University
Bard
Bates
Bowdoin
Colorado College
Dickinson
Drew
Franklin & Marshall
Hamilton
Hobart & William Smith
Julliard
Juniata
Knox
Lewis & Clark
Middlebury
NYU
Pitzer
Sarah Lawrence
Texas A & M
Union
Wake Forest
WPI
For a complete list of all the four year schools, go to the Fair Test Schools website: Fairtest.org
So if you’re not happy with your SAT scores in March and you just don’t want to take the SAT again consider some of the “Fair Test” schools.

Juliet Giglio
Educational Consultant in Syracuse, NY

The post The SAT is not Always Needed to Get into College first appeared on College Admission Counseling.

When Looking at Colleges-Ask About their First Year Experience Program

Jared Hobson — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 22:51:02 +0000

Arriving to college as a new first year student is exciting but it can also be overwhelming and at times a little bit scary. As a new student you are faced with navigating a campus, finding your classes, meeting new friends, learning to live on your own, managing your time, and much more. Luckily, most schools offer some type of first year experience program to help you transition from high school to college.
I recommend that when you are visiting colleges, or talking to an admissions representative, you take the time to ask about what their school does to help first year students adjust to campus life. Here are some types of first year experience programs to ask about:
Orientation Programs: Most colleges offer some type of orientation session prior to classes starting. Each college may run their orientation session a little differently and could include: registering for classes, meeting your advisor, convocation, a pep rally, “get to know you” activities, tours, etc.
Welcome Week: Depending on the college you are looking at “Welcome Week” may have a different name but most colleges offer some type of programming during the first few weeks of the school year to help new students meet each other. These programs might include: free concerts, movies, activities at the recreation center on campus, a club information fair, and much more.
FIGS & FSEM’s: Across the country there has been a movement to offer incoming students the opportunity to build small learning communities. Some large universities like the University of Oregon and University of Wisconsin-Madison use the term “FIGS” (Freshman Interest Groups ) to refer to these small learning communities. Other schools such as the University of Denver and Bowdoin College refer to these programs as “FSEMS” (Freshman (or First Year) Seminars). These programs are great ways to bring students and faculty together in discussion based courses. These are very helpful in getting connected with other incoming students and faculty on campus.
Common Read Experience: A number of colleges, such as Ohio University, have incoming students all read the same book prior to arriving on campus to create a shared experience for new students. Typically there is some sort of discussion, presentation by the author, or guest lecture on the topic of the book when students arrive on campus. The common book may be referenced during classes throughout the year.
Pre-Orientation Programs: Many colleges now offer pre-orientation trips or activities. This is a great chance to meet new students before even getting to campus so when you arrive on campus you already have a network of friends and acquaintances established. These pre-orientation programs may include outdoor trips that take you hiking, camping, or canoeing or they could be community service orientated. If you are planning to play a sport in college you may have your own pre-orientation pre-season program to attend.
Each college and university offers something different to help students adjust to campus life. When you go on tours ask your tour guide, or admissions representative, what makes their school’s first year program unique.

image credit: https://revelle.ucsd.edu/

The post When Looking at Colleges-Ask About their First Year Experience Program first appeared on College Admission Counseling.

The SAT, ACT, and “Test Optional” Admissions

Jared Hobson — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 11:55:10 +0000

Wake Forest, a small selective college in North Carolina, recently made the decision to allow applicants to not submit ACT or SAT scores. Thus Wake Forest joins the list of “test optional” colleges, a list that includes Smith College, Bowdoin College, Connecticut College, and hundreds of others.
One of the main reasons colleges cite for making tests optional is that lower income students generally perform less well on these tests than their more affluent counterparts. And poorer students tend to be less white, generally speaking, than the general population. Further, students with lower test scores tend to self-select, and avoid applying to colleges where they might actually get in because they have excellent academic records and a bevy of extracurricular activities.
So a college that goes “test optional” is likely to be interested in attracting more students of color to apply–and matriculate.
CNN published an excellent article last Friday, that provides a very balanced explanation of the pros and cons of using standardized tests in the admissions process.
Basically the debate can be summarized this way”

Different schools grade differently. An A in the wealthy part of town is not the same as an A in a poorer school. This should not be, but it is.
Standardized tests are a way to compare students across schools, across districts, and across states. They are an imperfect measure of aptitude or intelligence. But they are useful in comparing apples to apples.
Students with lower scores, many of whom are black, brown, and red, are attend college at much lower rates than their whiter counterparts. Yet most colleges, especially private, selective ones, truly want to recruit and retain more students of color. Thus if they stick to test scores as a key to admission, they will effectively block admission to large numbers of minorities.
In order to improve minority recruiting, then, some colleges choose to make the tests optional in hopes of attracting more minority applicants.

My view is that SAT scores are a useful way to compare apples to apples. But the problem is our national education system is anything but standardized, and while “separate but equal” is no longer allowed on racial grounds, we certainly have, de facto, a segregated education system in which the poor and the rich do not enjoy the same educational opportunities.
Therefore I like the idea of “test optional” schools. As it turns out, most of the selective colleges that are test optional (like Bowdoin) receive scores from about 80% of their applicants. So the tests aren’t going away. But if being a test-optional college gives more talented minority kids more hope that their application will be given a fair shake, then I think Wake Forest and the rest are making a good decision.
The SAT and ACT are not in any danger of going away, however. The NCAA will still use the scores as a requirement for athletic eligibility. A recent story on ESPN explains that scores are important, but grades are probably more important.
If you’re looking for a defense of the proper use of standardized tests in college admission, you might want to take a look at an article by Steve Farmer at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. He recently wrote a piece that rightly pointed out that there is still a lot we don’t know about how to predict success in college. Grade point averages (GPAs) are only slightly better predictors of success than the standardized tests. But neither is really all that great.
So, my advice?
Take the SAT and / or the ACT. Plan on reporting your scores to the college of your choice. However, if you really bomb the test, you can (and should!) consider a test-optional school.
Mark Montgomery
College Counselor

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