By Jonathan Schramm
Assistant Director
Undergraduate Admissions
So far, in my blog series on the application review process, I've discussed two important factors that can affect the outcome of admissions decisions at Virginia Tech: curriculum and grades. There is a third, and that is standardized test scores.
If you think of academic qualities like a tripod, all three legs have to be there for the application to stand up to scrutiny. In the case of selective admissions, the three legs are curriculum, grades and test scores.
The last is pretty straightforward. You either have competitive test scores or you don't. It may seem unfair. It's three hours of your life for goodness sake, usually on a Saturday morning, when you haven't had a wink of sleep and are stressed out of your mind. You go in, reading glasses askew, hair unkempt, and you come out with a number attached to your name.
But there is a reason they're so important, and there's a reason they're called s-t-a-n-d-a-r-d-i-z-e-d test scores. High schools are so different from district to district that it's not always advisable for colleges and universities to make decisions based solely on an applicant's grades and curriculum. So the standardized tests are one way we can tell applicants apart.
At Virginia Tech, we do all we can to insure your best score comes through in the review process. For instance, we'll accept both the ACT and the SAT. We also "super score," meaning we'll take the best score from all your exams and put them together so you have the best possible chance for admission. Right now we're just looking at the Critical Reading (SAT)/English (ACT) and the Math portions of the tests, but will use the Writing for placement
purposes. The average SAT last year was a 1250 and the average ACT was a 26.
I hope that helps clear some things up. Tune in next time when we talk about personal qualities, the softer side of the review process.
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