George Mason University recently announced that starting next fall it will no longer require some applicants to submit their SAT scores. This new policy allows students in the top 20 percent of their high school classes who have earned a GPA of 3.5 of higher to choose whether or not to send their scores.
According to GMU Dean of Admission Andrew Flagel, this change was implemented after the admissions office conducted a three-year study examining this demographic of applicants.
"Our data showed that [for] students with a GPA above 3.5 and other criteria [such as class standing], the SAT just wasn't telling us any new information; it wasn't predictive," Flagel said. "Often, there was a negative correlation. Stronger SATs were predicting lower outcomes."
To remedy this problem, the admissions office is exempting qualifying students from the SAT requirement on two conditions--they must write an additional essay, and they must submit two additional letters of recommendation.
According to Flagel, these additional pieces will tell the admissions committee a great deal more about how an applicant might contribute to the university community.
"There is a large field of theory regarding non-cognitive characteristics," Flagel said, alluding to University of Maryland researcher William Sedlasek's work. "In his research, looking particularly at student motivation and leadership and a litany of other criteria, on certain scales, is much more predictive. We've tried to take a methodology through recommendations and essays of starting to look at those possible topics."
According to University Dean of Admissions John Blackburn, this new system is something the University would never consider.
"We need [SATs] at U.Va. because of the kind of students applying to U.Va," Blackburn said. "We try to weigh as many factors as we can. We wouldn't consider going to something like that."
Blackburn added that this policy would be especially inappropriate for the University because 88 percent of this year's first-year class boasted seats in the top 10 percent of their high school classes.
While many prospective students and members of the media have described GMU's new policy as revolutionary, Flagel, while admitting that George Mason may be the first large public university in the country to do this, the new policy is not much of a departure from the current trend in admissions. Two elite liberal arts colleges in Maine, Bowdoin and Bates, no longer require applicants to submit SAT scores. In addition, Texas, Oregon and Arizona Universities have admissions criteria whereby applicants who meet specific criteria, including grades and class-rank, are guaranteed admission.
"This is a much more evolutionary and less revolutionary step," Flagel said, "one that really fits where universities are already going."
Flagel added that it is hard to tell whether the increase in attendance at GMU's information sessions and tours can be attributed solely to interest in this new policy.
"Mason is one of those schools that had something of a rise," Flagel said, citing the fact that applications have doubled in the last decade. "Add in that we're doing this in a year following an incredible Final Four run, and it's hard to parse out whether applicants are coming because of the fact that we got more media coverage or because of the new policy."
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