As you have probably heard, Washington University was recently listed by Business Insider as the college with the eighth-highest SAT scores in the nation. While that’s undeniably something to celebrate, the continued emphasis on test scores in college admissions highlights a number of issues in the admissions process.
The first semester of senior year in high school is completely consumed by the college process, and while there is a certain holistic aspect to the final product that applicants send to colleges, the college process is socioeconomically biased, egotistical and dishonest.
Changes are coming to the SAT—but not, it seems, to the Washington University admissions process. At the beginning of March, the College Board announced a variety of changes to the SAT as a response to criticisms from teachers, parents and students.
Much to the chagrin of most students who have already taken the SAT, the College Board has recently decided to revise its exam. I believe this is for the better.
A Huffington Post article from last Tuesday brought to my attention a bill in the New York state legislature that would make a felony out of proxy examination in the SAT. According to the article, the bill proposes that “felonies would apply to a test taker who impersonates someone else for pay.
Last week, the Student Life editorial board addressed a recent controversy surrounding an SAT question in an editorial, “Eliminate cultural bias in the SAT.” The controversial question was an essay prompt from the SAT writing section that dealt with reality TV.
It’s that time of the year when you start to question whether your only purpose in life is to peel yourself off of your chair in the library, slink downstairs, get coffee and repeat. However, this is not another article complaining about the drudgery of finals (even though I love complaining about the drudgery of finals).
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