Your donation will help us produce journalism like this. Please give today.
By Claudio Sanchez
Many high schoolers hoping to attend George Washington University in Washington, D.C., one of the top private universities in the country, breathed a sigh of relief this week.
GWU announced it will no longer require applicants to take the SAT or ACT.
The move comes after the school formed a task force to study the pros and cons of going “test-optional.” GWU attracts lots of high-achieving students who do well on both exams, but the task force concluded that the school’s reliance on these tests was excluding some high-achieving students who simply don’t test well.
Of particular concern were low-income, minority students who don’t even bother to apply because their scores are too low.
GWU will still require pre-med and home-schooled students, as well as athletes, to submit test scores, but, like many of the more than 800 other four-year colleges and universities that were already test-optional, it hopes its admissions criteria will now capture a more diverse pool of students.
Click here for the full story.