Beginning next year, New York University will no longer require applicants to submit SAT Reasoning Test scores, according to NYU’s Web site for Undergraduate Admissions.
Students applying to NYU will have the option to submit the SAT Reasoning Test and two Subject Tests, the ACT with Writing Section, the SAT Reasoning Test and two Advanced Placement scores, three SAT Subject Tests in non-language areas or three AP scores in non-language areas. For the Subject Tests and AP scores, the applicants should submit scores in the humanities or literature, math or science and an area of choice.
The University, meanwhile, will not change its requirements for standardized tests, Dean of Admissions Greg Roberts said, noting that he believes the current University policy remains adequate.
According to NYU’s Web site, the school’s administration believes that a wider variety of test scores will benefit applicants. The change in policy was partially a result of NYU’s concern that talented students with lower test scores were discouraged from applying because of the increasing average SAT score of accepted students.
Additionally, tests other than the SAT Reasoning Test are linked to subject mastery, and NYU’s research has shown that SAT Subject Tests and high school transcripts are better indicators of how a student will perform academically than the SAT Reasoning Test alone, the Web site stated.
“At heart, [the change] is about giving students more choice in how they present themselves and about acknowledging the importance of subject mastery,” NYU spokesperson John Beckman stated in an e-mail.
NYU’s change in policy is part of an overall trend in admissions, said David Hawkins, director of public policy and research for the National Association for College Admission Counseling. Colleges are showing increasing interest in reassessing the role of standardized testing in admissions, he said.
Robert Schaeffer, the public education director of the National Center for Fair and Open Testing, said he sees any movement away from required standardized tests as positive.
“In many cases, admission officers use [the SAT Reasoning Test] as a cheap — since they don’t pay for it, test takers do — and easy way to eliminate applicants,” Schaeffer said. “Of course, it’s a biased screen and one that ends up eliminating many applicants who could otherwise succeed in college.”
He characterized NYU’s policy change as a step toward a test-optional admissions policy. “Some people want to take a giant step and some people want to take a smaller step, and we applaud them both,” Schaeffer said.
The policy also can benefit students by allowing them to take one less test, Hawkins said.
“I think that this would relieve some of the testing burden on students as they go through the application process,” he said. Another advantage of the change is reflected in a report commissioned by the National Association for College Admission Counseling, which “found that tests that are more linked to the curriculum, like AP exams or subject tests, are generally speaking more predictive of the freshman grade point average for students,” he said.
The College Board’s 2008 SAT Validity Studies of 150,000 students nationwide, though, found that the SAT continues to be an excellent predictor of how students will perform during their first year of college, and that the SAT is a better predictor than high school grades for all minority groups, among other findings.
Hawkins also identified a potential disadvantage because of the change, in that students could become confused with a wider range of different tests and requirements.
“[This downside] doesn’t necessarily pertain to NYU because what they’ve done is they’ve given students options,” Hawkins said. “When it’s approached that way, it really does minimize the confusion because it’s not a requirement, it’s just an option.”
Although NYU made the changes to its admissions policies, the University is not considering similar changes to its requirements for standardized tests, Roberts said.
“Our process is holistic,” he said. “We look at everything the students submit and there is no formula.”
Roberts noted that the SAT is evaluated in the context of the rest of the prospective student’s application.
“We’re happy with the results we get currently,” Roberts said, adding that he supports NYU’s efforts to provide flexibility for students and to encourage lower-scoring students to apply. Apart from requiring the SAT Reasoning Test, Roberts said that most of the University’s admissions policies are very similar to NYU’s.
“I found that in admissions, most schools are constantly evaluating their admission process and trying to determine which policies and programs are the fairest and most equitable for the students who are applying, and we do that as well,” Roberts said, “but to make a dramatic change like this would not be something that we would do overnight.”
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