A primer on why college preparedness exams matter.
An article I’m working on regarding Florida’s continued decline in college readiness exams necessitates a bit of background information on what college readiness exams are and why they are important.
Why do college preparedness exams matter?
Though there are many parts to a college application, college readiness exams are the only standardized metrics college admissions staff review with each application. The only other metric considered is a student’s GPA – everything else is subjective.
And GPA isn’t a fair measure, either.
Although GPA discrimination based on geography and/or school setting shouldn’t exist, elite universities may be inclined to think a 3.91 GPA from a rural town in Mississippi is not as difficult to earn as a 3.89 GPA from an elite, private preparatory school in New Hampshire.
In the college admissions process, fractions are the difference between acceptance and rejection, funding and debt, dreams and despair.
My sister experienced this prejudice first-hand when she applied to Georgetown. The woman interviewing her remarked that not many students at Georgetown come from Mississippi, and that she would need to pad her 4.3 GPA with excellent test scores to get in.
Co…
