Julie Posselt in Inside Higher Ed: Graduate programs need to rethink use of standardized admissions tests

This op-ed — authored by Julie Posselt, Pullias Center researcher and assistant professor of higher education at University of Southern California, and Casey W. Miller, associate dean for research and faculty affairs at the Rochester Institute of Technology — was originally published in Inside Higher Ed on May 7, 2018.

This week several admissions experts, through the National Association for College Admission Counseling, released an important report that concludes colleges and universities with test-optional undergraduate admissions yield more low-income students and have similar degree completion rates. Their evidence from case studies of 28 universities informs the burgeoning test-optional movement.

More than 1,000 colleges and universities have eliminated SAT/ACT requirements, and nearly every week universities and graduate programs — even in die-hard STEM disciplines like physics and astronomy — are announcing policy changes on the Graduate Record Examination. If your college, university, graduate program or professional school has not discussed whether standardized test scores should still be required or collected in your admissions process, it’s time for the talk.

Read the rest of this op-ed in Inside Higher Ed.

.

Julie Posselt is a researcher at the Pullias Center for Higher Education and assistant professor of higher education at University of Southern California.