The hope is that, without the test being used as a standard qualifier, admissions officers will spend more time getting to know the applicant through his or her transcript, essays and activities.
The other, called a personal achievement index, awarded points for two required essays, leadership, activities, service and "special circumstances".
This is cross-posted at Blog on the Universe where you'll find links to essays and activities that powerfully address the science, history, and politics of human spaceflight -- all embracing the notion that science education is about conceptual understanding at an emotional level.
This consists of a biographical information form, evaluation letters, essays, transcripts, activities form and tests form.
And yet, for the high school senior, the season of college applications is characterized by indoor imagery: toiling away in classrooms to assure the best grades yet, drafting essays and activity lists while glued to computer screens, sitting in auditoriums taking a final SAT, or attending countless college information sessions.
The essays and activity resume are great ways to show other sides of yourself not represented in your grades or test scores.
Most admission officers use the SAT, along with grades, extracurricular activities, essays and recommendations to do the difficult work of fairly selecting talented, diverse students for their institutions.
Generally, only small colleges and universities with the resources to pay attention to recommendations, essays and extracurricular activities, as well as to a student's grades and test scores, have been able to eliminate their testing requirements.
The admissions teams often use a holistic approach to admission, considering essays and extracurricular activities as well as straightforward academic credentials.
In the second case, if there are production or construction activities (essays, problem solutions, graphs,…), the resulting productions can be distributed to peer learners who will rate a limited number of their peers by filling a small assessment questionnaire.
