President Bill Perry believes the important thing for universities when considering students for admission is to look at their background and experience.

“You need to look at more than just a score, you need to look at more than just a grade point average, we need to look at the courses they have taken and other indicators that flesh out the overall application portfolio,” Perry said.

At the annual meeting of the National Association for College Admission Counseling in Seattle in September, committees discussed whether or not their colleges should drop the SAT and ACT requirement.

The ACT has been a 50-state exam since 1960, but recently some schools, such as Wake Forest University and Connecticut College, are making the SAT and ACT requirement optional.

Brenda Major, director of admissions, said Eastern would not make providing an ACT score optional because they have a wider view on applications.

“We see students who have 17, 16 ACTs who have B-plus and 4.0 grade point averages,” Major said. “We don’t just use the ACT to determine whether a student is going to be admitted, we always use a combination of ACT, grade point average and every grade the student has earned.”

Major said if Eastern were to take away the ACT, it would limit the information available when determining the qualification of a student.

Not all high schools give the option to put the ACT score on your transcripts, so half of the time Major requests them from the student or the ACT.

“We know that some students are not as good standardized test takers than others, so that’s why we don’t want to put the whole admissions decision on just that score,” Perry said.

Mollie Neff, a junior mathematics major, said universities should make including the score on your application optional because you do not have to answer questions such as race on your application.

“In a way, it’s good because not all people are good at taking tests,” Neff said. “A score should not reflect how good of a student you are.”

Major said most of the schools considering doing this are private.

“There are a group of private schools who get their students from all over the country from about a hundred high schools and they come to know these students are extremely intelligent,” she said. “So because they know the nature of the high school, it’s OK for them to decide it’s OK not to look at the ACT.”

However, Major said that could mean other kids from different high schools would not get admitted. Major said this might send a confusing message.

“It would (make) some kid who had a low ACT say ‘They won’t even look at my ACT score, so I should go ahead and apply,'” Major said. “The reality is they will not be admitted.”

Eastern does an overall review for applicants when they apply to the university.

Major believes an ACT score tells part of the story about a student’s capabilities.

Perry believes some universities are giving this as an option in response to concerns.

“Maybe the scores gained too much importance in some admissions process,” Perry said.

A big factor for applications in the application process for Eastern is the student personal statements. It’s not required, but 95 percent of applicants do the personal statement.

“It tells how people follow directions,” Major said.

Emily Skonetski, a freshman special education major, liked the application process and personal statement Eastern allowed her to fill out.

“I think it’s necessary to fill out because it’s your chance to set yourself apart from others,” Skonetski said.

She thinks it is great Eastern looks at indicators on an application other than the ACT score.

According to Inside Higher Ed, the National Center for Fair and Open Testing has a list of more than 770 colleges that do not require ACT or SAT scores.

“The ACT score for instance doesn’t tell you how much initiative a person has, how motivated they are to get a college degree, doesn’t tell you how hard they work – there are a lot of things the score doesn’t tell you,” Perry said.

Eastern requires a minimum ACT score of 18 if a student has a GPA of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale or is in the top quarter of their class.

However, the Admissions Office looks at other factors and has programs such as the Gateway Program to help students who were not eligible for admission get a second review.

Status of the ACT

The ACT has been around since 1950

Now there are more than 770 colleges that do not require ACT or SAT scores at all

Eastern requires a minimum ACT score of 18 if the student has a GPA of 3.0/4.0 or are ranked in the top quarter of his or her class

Brittni Garcia can be reached at 581-7942 or aT bmgarcia@eiu.edu.