The Essay
The Playing Field: US college admissions
Do recent changes to the way some universities take into consideration standardised test scores make sense?
By Sudarshan Saha, Center Head, Center for Study Abroad, India
About two decades back, when I attended the EducationUSA sponsored US Based Training (USBT) Program (managed by College Board at that time), in one of our training sessions I first encountered a critic of the standardised testing who had a negative impression on testing. Over the years, I saw an increased number of such critics who were against the testing. The COVID-19 pandemic became a rallying point for test critics to downplay the importance of testing. Incidentally, I was involved in administering the SAT paper-pencil test at an international testing centre (and other testing for graduate students too) for years – our centre had a great demand among the students of Eastern India for fair administration and testing environment. Many of my former advisees got into the top schools in the US with good to outstanding SAT scores. Test scores were one of the top five parameters (academic, standardised test scores, application essay, Letter of Recommendation (LORs), and co-curricular activities) in the admission decisions (and financial aid).
I am a little surprised to see that Duke has a new policy: “DU is no longer assigning numerical ratings to applicants’ standardised test scores and essays.” Their justification on not including essays in the numerical ratings is "largely due to the rise of AI-generated writing among current high school and college students as well as concerns about ghostwritten essays from highly paid college consultants”. The most serious allegation is “We’re just no longer assuming that the essay is an accurate reflection of the student’s actual writing ability”. Do you agree with what Duke says on essays? At least, I agree with this point “ghostwritten”.
Now let us look at what are the parameters Duke now considers – “remaining numerically weighted categories: curriculum strength, academics, recommendations and extracurricular”. I would like to stress on recommendations or LORs. Do you think the LORs or recommendations carry honest reflections of the students’ strengths and weaknesses? From my own experience as a former EducationUSA adviser, and what many students and their teachers have revealed, LORs or recommendations do not always have actual reflections.
There are also ghost NGOs or organisations. Students can easily get certifications without actually doing any internships and engaging in any social work or community development. Hence, how much you can rely on extracurricular activities?
Finally, my question to readers and experts in international education is, “Do prospective students applying to US colleges get justice on their applications?” These students are paying around US$40-80 as fee for each college application. According to the critiques, standardised test scores do not reveal students’ success in college level education. So, they are strongly in favour of test optional admissions. The essays are ghostwritten; LORs or recommendations carry distorted information; extracurricular activities may not be genuine. Moreover, if a top college (as per their website) admitted around 2,300 among a total application pool of 57,000 (please note that the application fee is US$ 80+), how can these students can expect a fair review of their applications?
If factors like academic strength, application essays, recommendations and co-curricular activities get the benefit of doubt in the admission process, why not then consider test scores (SAT/ACT) which served the purpose of fair assessment over many decades? These tests certainly measure some important skills that may give real time assessment. There are least chance to manipulate the performance unlike the other factors stated above. It may be time for a holistic approach to trim the bias tendency.