Posted September 25th, 2008
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A report by a group of influential experts recommends that colleges re-examine their admissions and merit aid policies and consider admitting students without the use of scores from standardized tests such as the SAT and ACT.
The report, commissioned by the National Association for College Admission Counseling, mirrors concerns raised by many high school counselors that colleges have assigned too much importance to test scores and is highly critical of test-preparation programs, which appear to benefit mostly affluent students. The commission, which included Harvard Admissions Dean William Fitzsimmons as well as several other well-regarded college admissions officials and high school counselors, recommends that colleges shift toward exams that test students on their knowledge of high school curriculum subjects, such as the SAT subject tests, Advanced Placement exams, and the International Baccalaureate exams.
The College Board, which owns the SAT, issued a statement defending its admissions exam as fair. “Working with our member institutions and other educators, we look forward to continuing our efforts to further improve the value of our SAT Subject Tests to institutions,” the statement said. It noted that scores on the SAT, along with high school grades, are strong predictors of college success and joined the commission in its call for appropriate use of test scores.
Of the commission’s report, ACT Inc. says that it has “always recommended that colleges use multiple indicators of college readiness along with ACT test scores for admissions, scholarships and other high stakes decisions. No single measure can be an effective measure of students’ likely success in college.” (U.S. News uses SAT and ACT data to rank colleges, a practice the report criticizes. Robert Morse has responded here.)
The report will no doubt be the subject of much conversation when the NACAC membership arrives this week in Seattle for the group’s annual convention. Many counselors believe that standardized tests hurt a variety of students, from disadvantaged minorities to kids who just don’t test well. “I cannot tell you how many students I have worked with who are amazing in their classes but freeze when it comes to the SAT or ACT because they know how much is riding on the scores,” says Patricia Mucenski, a counselor at Lisbon High School in Maine. “Unfortunately, for these students who do have good GPAs but poor test scores, merit aid is usually lessened or not offered at all.”
The difficult task admissions officers would face in a world without SATs and ACTs is how to compare evenly applicants from schools across the nation. “Grades, without adequate context, aren’t of much use, either, because of the radical differences in the way grades are used from school to school and even teacher to teacher,” says Bruce Poch, vice president and admissions dean at Pomona College. “Grade inflation in secondary schools is well documented.”
The National Center for Fair and Open Testing, which tends to oppose standardized testing, was quick to praise the findings of the report. The organization says about 775 colleges have test-optional admissions criteria. Bob Schaeffer, the organization’s public education director, predicted the report would accelerate the pace of colleges dropping the SAT and ACT. Others disagree. It’s too early to know if the report will lead more colleges to drop the tests from their admissions criteria. Bari Norman, who is a private college counselor with clients in New York and Miami, says it’s not easy to convince parents that their children can go to selective universities like Harvard (which acknowledges the report but declined to say whether it will change its test policy) without competitive SAT or ACT scores. “I think universities such as Harvard need to step up to the plate in a real way and actually de-emphasize the use of these scores in their admissions processes,” Norman says.
Source : US News.
Tags: College Admissions Posted in Uncategorized
Posted September 23rd, 2008
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The National Association for College Admission Counseling just released its long-awaited Report of the NACAC Commission on the Use of Standardized Tests in Undergraduate Admission that makes recommendations on how the SAT, ACT, and other standardized tests should be used in college admissions.
Our use of SAT and ACT test scores in the America’s Best Colleges rankings is one area that the commission—made up of college admissions deans and high school counselors—weighs in on. It says:
The Commission believes that, as tests designed to provide information about individuals to colleges and universities, the SAT and ACT were never designed as measures of the quality of an institution of higher education. Accordingly, the Commission encourages U.S. News to eliminate test scores as a measure of institutional quality.
U.S. News has no plans at present to change our college rankings methodology in response to this NACAC report. Our methodology reflects the current state of college admissions, where standardized tests are still used in the vast percentage of admissions decisions and have been playing an increasingly important role over the past few years. Currently, 60 percent of colleges say that test scores are of “considerable importance” as a factor in student admissions, up from 43 percent in 1994, according to NACAC’s own research. As long as standardized tests play an integral role in the college admissions process, U.S. News will use them as part of our ranking methodology.
Contrary to the commission, U.S. News believes that when combined with other indicators of academic quality, standardized test scores can be used to compare institutions. Indeed, this is what many colleges and universities do when they compare themselves with one another. We believe that the scholastic abilities of the students enrolled at one school compared with those at another are an important factor in determining the academic atmosphere on campus.
Only about 5 percent of the four-year regionally accredited colleges in the U.S. News Best Colleges universe say they don’t use the SAT or ACT in admissions. U.S. News does not rank those schools. The other 95 percent of colleges say they either require the SAT or ACT for admission or say they are test optional. We have found that typically around two thirds of incoming students at test-optional schools submit standardized test scores.
The bottom line: If a meaningful percentage of colleges drop their SAT or ACT requirements for admission, then U.S. News will change our ranking model. So far, that is not happening.
Source : US News
Tags: NACAC, SAT Posted in Uncategorized
Posted July 30th, 2008
by admin
Instead of no-strings-attached free money in the form of grants or scholarships, a growing number of government agencies and charities are offering to repay the educational loans of grad students who agree to take certain jobs, work in certain geographical areas, or commit to low-paying public service careers.
Some of these programs have quite a few hoops to jump through. The public service loan repayment program will pay off your balance only if you consolidate your loans into the income-based repayment plan, earn no more than 150 percent of the poverty line, make 10 years of payments, and work in public service for 10 years. Other loan repayment programs, however, require only a few years of work.
WARNING: Make sure to read the fine print of any loan forgiveness or loan repayment program, since a job change or relocation can mean a big financial penalty.
How to find loan repayment offers:
- Call your department head or university financial aid office for advice.
- Check with professional and trade associations in your field. They often maintain lists of loan repayment programs.
- Or you can start with this list of some of the most popular loan repayment
Source : US News.
Posted in Uncategorized
Posted July 27th, 2008
by admin
The competition to get into the top graduate programs is so fierce—especially for the professional schools such as law, business, and medicine—that many students assume universities don’t give away scholarships to lure candidates.
Wrong!
The reality is that even highly ranked grad schools are themselves competing fiercely for the best applicants. Don’t believe us? Listen to Karen Klomperans, dean of Michigan State University’s well-ranked graduate business school: “We want to attract the best M.B.A. students, and there is a lot of competition among the top 30 institutions for those students.”
Here are eight tips on how you can use grad schools’ competition to improve your financial aid packages:
1) Before you apply to any graduate school, realistically evaluate your grades, scores, qualifications, and willingness to move to a distant school. For example, if you’re a C student and can attend only the nearest school, you shouldn’t expect many programs to compete for your matriculation.
2) Search among the schools for which your qualifications are typical of admitted students for at least two you’d like to attend.
3) Search among schools for which your qualifications are at the top of the admitted pool for at least one you’d like to attend.
4) Search for schools you’d like to attend and for which your qualifications make you competitive that have comparatively low tuition and total costs of attendance (including travel and living costs).
5) Apply to a couple of affordable schools, a couple of schools for which you are competitive, and a couple of schools for which you are a catch.
6) Once you’re accepted and get your aid offers, do the math to calculate the net price for each school. That means adding up tuition, fees, room, board, travel, books, etc., and then–from that total–subtracting out the free money for each school.
7) If the net price of the school you prefer seems unaffordably high, figure out what net price you can realistically afford. Many graduate schools don’t offer grants or scholarships because they figure students will make such high incomesafter they graduate that they can easily pay back loans. Use a loan payment calculator to figure out how much your payments might be. Use our career and salary estimators to see if you are likely to be able to pay off your grad school debt.
Before the commitment deadline and before you make any decision, contact the head of the graduate department and politely explain why the school is your first choice but you might not be able to attend because you have more financially attractive alternatives. Be open-minded about the solutions. Grants can be scarce, but an assistantship or tuition discount might get you to the same out-of-pocket cost. Warning: Don’t expect a highly-ranked school to match offers or compete financially with a school ranked much lower. Many schools feel you should pay more for a degree that they believe is more valuable. You’ll have to decide for yourself whether the extra cost is worth the benefit.
If you still need more money, search for other sources of financial aid.
Source : US News
Posted in Uncategorized
Posted July 25th, 2008
by admin
At least half of all American workers get some sort of educational benefit from their jobs. Most employers will pay only for courses that they consider to be work related. But quite a few employers (covering at least 15 percent of American workers) will pay for almost any course. Here’s how to maximize your chances of getting your employer to help pay your tuition:
Check out the details of your employers’ educational benefits before you sign up for a course. Make sure your course qualifies. And find out if there are any grade requirements. Some employers won’t reimburse for low grades.
If your employer doesn’t have a formal employment benefit, write up a request. To encourage employers to help their workers, the federal tax code now allows employers to pay as much as $5,250 a year in tuition for work-related courses. It’s fairly easy for almost any employer to set up an Employer Assistance Program—it takes as little as a one-page document. Best of all, the student doesn’t have to pay taxes on that money.
More on the many education benefit options available from the Journal of Accountancy.
Source : US News.
Posted in Uncategorized
