Until recently, SAT scores played a major role in Furman University’s merit-scholarship decisions. But for this fall’s entering class, the university went in a new direction.
Like plenty of other colleges looking to enhance their reputations, Furman had spent a lot of money to recruit students with high standardized-test scores. But Furman was putting even more weight on test scores than it meant to, says Rod Smolla, who became the university’s president in 2010. This was just one of several problems Mr. Smolla saw in how the university had been awarding merit aid.
Despite using a complex aid-awarding strategy, Mr. Smolla says, Furman had been overshooting its financial-aid budget for years. That complexity also meant “we’d lost our ability to effectively shape the class,” he says. “It was impossible to say if we wanted to increase diversity, what would it cost?, or if we are interested in more students interested in music, what would it cost?, or if we are interested to help more impoverished families, what would it cost?”
It seemed to Mr. Smolla that only the consultant working with Furman really knew how aid was being awarded. It was like being on an airplane that only the computer knows how to fly, he says.
While spending heavily to compete with other colleges and universities that wanted the same high-scoring students, the university, its leaders thought, might be missing out on some great students who did not happen to have stellar scores. By paying a lot of attention to the SAT, Furman favored applicants who could afford test prep or were naturally good test-takers, Mr. Smolla says. In theory, test scores were supposed to count for only 15 or 20 percent of an applicant’s merit ranking, he says. But, because the most competitive students had otherwise similar academic strengths, test scores took on more weight.
Mr. Smolla compares the situation to giving an exam graded on a curve. Say the exam has five parts, each worth the same number of points. If students all perform very strongly in the first four sections, but have more varied scores on the fifth, then that last section will be the curve breaker. In Furman’s scholarship policy, that curve breaker was the SAT.
‘A Stronger, More Talented Class’
All that led Mr. Smolla to encourage his staff to find a different approach. The university’s associate vice presidents for admission and financial aid, who have each been at Furman for about three years, set to work changing how merit scholarships were awarded. They came up with a new system that de-emphasized the SAT and allowed the university to stick to its budget.
Furman began to use new measures to find students who were hungry and passionate learners, and who had grit, says Brad Pochard, associate vice president for admission. The university paid more attention to letters of recommendation from counselors and teachers, and to admissions interviews. Furman made interviews available to all of its prospective students for the first time in this past cycle, Mr. Pochard says, and is considering requiring them in the future.
The result? Furman’s average SAT score dropped about 25 points for this entering class compared with the year before, Mr. Pochard says, bringing it back in line with its average from several years ago.
Now Furman is looking at different markers of success it can track from year to year, like the numbers of valedictorians and student-body presidents, Mr. Pochard says. “From here on, we can argue we have a stronger, more talented class based on things we’ll be able to measure.”
It was also important to Furman that the incoming class was diverse, and the university did make some gains in gender balance, the percentage of students who are nonwhite, and the number of students from other countries, Mr. Pochard says.
The new approach to merit aid is not the only change Furman is making. Several years ago, the university started allowing students to submit other test scores, like those from AP exams, instead of an ACT or SAT score, Mr. Pochard says. But for the class it’s recruiting for next fall, Furman will be entirely test optional. This move shows that the university really is serious about looking at students more holistically, Mr. Pochard says.
As for the finances, Furman came in under budget on its financial aid for the first time in years, while also bringing in a larger class. The university, which is no longer working with its consultant, has a new aid-awarding strategy that was designed by its own staff. The system has built-in checks to prevent overspending, says Forrest M. Stuart, associate vice president for financial aid. This, he says, will free up money for offering the students it recruits a better academic experience once they arrive on campus.
