An Ultra-Selective College Dropped the ACT/SAT. And Then What?

Last year the University of Chicago floored higher education by announcing that it would drop its ACT/SAT requirement in hopes of enrolling more underrepresented students. The South Side campus became the most-selective institution yet to go test-optional, and some admissions insiders predicted that other bastions of prestige would follow suit.

A year later, it’s too soon to tell whether a new phase of the test-optional trend has begun. But for now, maybe a better question is this: How much does a testing policy matter if a college doesn’t consider removing other real or perceived barriers to access?

You’ve got to look at everything, especially affordability, says James G. Nondorf, Chicago’s dean of admissions and financial aid. In an interview with The Chronicle this week, he described the university’s new test-optional policy as one part of a broad initiative that’s helping the university diversify its campus.

That initiative includes an expanded financial-aid program providing full-tuition scholarships to students whose families earn less than $125,000 a year; families earning less than $60,000 a year don’t pay for tuition, room, and board. And first-generation students now get at least $20,000 in scholarships over four years, plus a paid summer internship. (Yes, it helps to have an $8-billion endowment.)

This fall, Chicago says it expects to welcome a record number of students from underrepresented backgrounds, including a 20 percent increase in first-generation and low-income students. According to the university’s current tally, Hispanic students will represent 17 percent of the incoming class, and black students will represent 10 percent — both all-time highs. And about 14 percent of incoming students are eligible for federal Pell Grants, up from 11 percent.

Chicago also saw enrollment increases among several subgroups the initiative targeted, including students from rural areas, and the children of police officers and firefighters. Last year, there were no veterans in the incoming class; this year, there will be 14, including a former Green Beret and a cryptologist who served in the Navy.

It’s safe to say that nixing its testing requirement helped Chicago attract even more applicants. “We send signals with our policies,” Nondorf said. “We are signaling here that there are a lot of ways to show academic promise, that a test is not the be-all, end-all piece of your application.”

This year, 34,600 students applied, and 6 percent were accepted. Nondorf said 10 to 15 percent of all applicants didn’t submit ACT/SAT scores. And non-submitters constituted a similar proportion of admitted students.

Test-optional policies tend to appeal to many kinds of applicants. Officials at several other colleges that have dropped their ACT/SAT requirement recently said that many applicants from affluent schools end up applying under test-optional plans — even those who have solid scores.

Chicago didn’t see much of a difference this year between students who submitted scores and those who did not. Both pools were similarly diverse, Nondorf said, though applicants intending to major in the arts and humanities were more likely to withhold scores than those interested in science and math.

What qualities stood out among successful applicants who didn’t send scores? “They tended to submit something else that really strengthened their application far more than testing would have, even if the testing had been awesome,” Nondorf said. Invited to send supplemental materials, students sent all kinds of things: creative writing, research projects, essays, and clips of dance or theater performances.

“When they tied it all together,” Nondorf said of students with strong applications but no ACT/SAT scores, “I didn’t need to see the testing to know that this kid was going to come here and be a rock star.”

This past year, Chicago gave applicants the option of uploading a two-minute video “introduction.” About a third did so. And some, Nondorf said, “just blew us away.”

Like the young man whose bedroom walls were covered with whiteboards. Why? So that he could write mathematical proofs on them. In his video, he walked viewers through what he called his favorite proof, as if trying to melt the math department’s collective heart. (He was admitted.)

For all the attention the test-optional move has received, Nondorf said that the policy alone would not benefit the university, or as many students, if it had not made other changes. “You have to be removing lots of barriers,” Nondorf said. “You have to look at any one change, even a big one like going test-optional, in terms of all the other policies and programs you have, to meet families where they are.”

It’s a continuing endeavor. Recently, Chicago officials have focused on better understanding the barriers hindering prospective college students from rural communities.

This week, the university will announce plans to enhance its outreach to those communities. For one thing, it will now offer free weeklong summer sessions for up to 30 high-school juniors from rural areas, allowing them to get a taste of campus life and advice on preparing for college.

“Access isn’t just targeting one group,” Nondorf said. “Every group has different hurdles.”

Eric Hoover writes about the challenges of getting to, and through, college. Follow him on Twitter @erichoov, or email him, at eric.hoover@chronicle.com.