Dive Brief:
- Temple University in Philadelphia dropped its requirement for prospective students to submit SAT or ACT scores last year and has noticed a surge in applications from African-American and Latino students.
- Based on students who have paid deposits, the percentage of African-Americans and Latinos in the incoming class is 22% and 26% higher than last year, respectively.
- Temple is also welcoming a larger freshman class than last year with a higher yield based on the number of accepted students choosing to enroll.
Dive Insight:
Temple University was the first public research university in the Northeast to cut its SAT/ACT requirement, joining more than 800 colleges across the country that do not require prospective students to submit their scores. The tests have long been criticized as poor indicators of college success. At Temple, prospective students choosing not to submit their presumably low scores had to write four extra essays as part of their application. Philly.com reports that the essays were meant to help admissions officers assess student attributes like leadership, self-awareness, goal-setting, determination, and grit. At the graduate school level, a growing number of universities have decided in recent years to move away from requiring applicants to submit LSAT, GMAT, and GRE scores for similar reasons.