I am a native of Houlton, Maine, and have relatives in your area. I find your excellent newspaper refreshing. The article, “SAT still facing questions about long-term survival,” was inspiring (March 6).
It is amazing that only a few colleges in the country have decided to adopt the Bates College policy, to admit students without standardized test scores, in the 20 years it has been followed.
Wylie Mitchell, dean of admissions at Bates for the entire 20 years, clearly has more confidence in his ability to pick students than his counterparts elsewhere have. He finds interviews helpful, along with high school grade-point averages and other data, but face-to-face interviews may be as daunting for some interviewers as for the students sitting opposite them. Personal reactions to minor details may cloud one’s judgment, but standardized test scores should not be seen as the only objective criteria.
Since the poor do significantly worse on the SAT than students with a higher-income background and the scores help little in predicting graduation rates, all colleges should follow Bates and drop requirements for SAT and ACT scores.
Byrna Porter Weir, Rochester, N.Y.
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