A significant change is coming to all Indiana University campuses.
The Board of Trustees approved a new plan that IU will no longer require prospective students to submit standardized test scores when applying.
Students will have the decision of whether or not they want to self-report their scores or to send their scores at all to IU.
Students who decide to not submit their scores aren’t fully off the hook though, and will need to prove academic achievement in different ways. Aside from test scores, IU will highly consider GPA’s, class grades, extracurricular activities, community service, work experience, leadership experience, the application essay, as well as any counselor or teacher recommendations.
Division 1 athletes and home-schooled students will, however, still be required to submit their scores.
Individual schools at IU may still opt to use test scores to access students, but not to decide who gets in.
After over a year of research and decision-making, IU Bloomington’s Assistant Vice Provost Sacha Thieme believes that this will provide better opportunities for all students.
Assistant Vice Provost Sacha Thieme discusses IU’s new application changes.
According to PrepScholar , there are over 1,000 universities in the country that no longer require standardized test score submissions.
Although IU isn’t the first to implement this change, Thieme says that IU is the first university of the Big Ten schools that has.
Research shows that high school students’ GPA in addition to an SAT/ACT scores is the best way to present academic success, but Bloomington High School North junior Estelle Ryhal disagrees.
Ryhal, who considers herself an above-average student, believes that SAT tests don’t accurately reflect student success, and that the best way for a student to prove their achievements, is through what they do and learn in the classroom.
She says that even though the SAT is supposed to measure what you’ve learned in high school and what is expected of you in college, that what is taught in school does not add up to the questions asked on the SAT.
Ryhal plans to apply to IU and says that she will submit her standardized test score to boost her application just in case.
Bloomington High School North junior Estelle Ryhal talks about why she believes standardized testing isn’t a good way to judge students.
The College Board 2019 Annual Report indicates the of the 45 schools listed in Indiana, Indiana University Bloomington gets the most SAT’s submitted.
Around 36,000 students in Indiana who took the SAT chose to send their scores to various universitys, with about half being IU.
These changes will be in effect on August 1st, 2020 for the 2021 school year.
