The Impact of Eliminating Standardized Test Requirements

â€Å"What did you get on the SAT?† Five years ago, the answer to that question may have been the deciding factor for getting into college. However, with the ACT’s rise in popularity and the SAT’s new changes, that no longer seems to be the case. Just last week, Columbia University announced that they will be dropping the SAT subject test requirement, as well as the writing portions of the SAT and ACT. Though this testing policy is pretty common across most U.S. universities, Columbia is the first Ivy League to forego considering SAT subject tests as part of its admissions evaluation and the second after the University of Pennsylvania to not the writing section. It seems the Ivy League may finally be reducing their rigorous test requirements, leaving only Cornell, Harvard and Brown who still require the SAT/ACT, including the writing section, along with SAT subject tests. You may be surprised to find that only 13 schools in the U.S. actually require any SAT subject tests. If that’s the case, why are people so concerned with Columbia’s new policy? We asked Joanna Graham, the Director of Academics at Veritas Prep, who has 15 years of experience in standardized testing and test preparation to weigh in. â€Å"While the decision to drop SAT subject test requirements isn’t a new one (the University of California system dropped them in 2011), the prominence attached to the decision coming from Columbia might turn a few heads. SAT subject tests have long had a mixed reputation,† said Graham, â€Å"While many students love them as an opportunity to showcase subject matter expertise in a specific academic area, they’ve also been criticized as a test for the wealthy and privileged.† The debate of whether the admissions process favors students with more privileged backgrounds is forever ongoing, and the SAT has been caught in the center of it. To this point, Graham added, â€Å"By eliminating the requirement, it levels the playing field for students coming from low-income areas and schools that don’t offer honor courses (that would be commensurate with the content on these tests).† Chris Lele, Magoosh’s SAT Curriculum Manager, who has also worked for 10 years in standardized test coaching, is a little bit skeptical about this change, especially when it comes to dropping the writing portion of the SAT. â€Å"I think its tempting to want to view Columbias recent decision as the first step in phasing out the SAT in the Ivies. I wouldnt jump to this conclusion, however. For one thing, the SAT essay, at least the previous essay, was one marred in controversy,† said Lele, â€Å"Im not sure exactly what affected Columbias decision, but Im not sure how much of it actually had to do with the content of the new essay.† This testing policy change will take effect and affect Fall 2016 applicants. How can you account for this change if Columbia is on your college list? Will it impact your chances as an applicant? The immediate reaction from students has been positive, as there’s now one fewer test to take and more money is saved as a result. Columbia dropped the SAT subject test and writing requirement for admissions Yasssss push thru for inclusion Corrine (@Corrinecee) June 9, 2016 ...because test scores do not define you! https://t.co/F3IRNb4p63 Barsa (@missbarsa) June 11, 2016 The most important impact this change will have may not be obvious to you. Graham elaborates, â€Å"University admissions committees have fewer data points upon which to evaluate you which means every other aspect of your application just became that much more important.† She continues, â€Å"In short, maintain your status quo and put together your best application package possible. And if you’ve already taken SAT subject tests and scored well, don’t be afraid to offer an extra data point to distinguish yourself.† Choosing where to go to college is an incredibly important decision. Make an informed choice by talking to current students on ourmentorship platform. Access 60,000+ successfulcollege application filesuploaded by college students (they get paid when you view them). is a community of students helping students. Our goal is to bring much-needed transparency to higher education.

Norman Rockwell essays

Norman Rockwell essays Norman Percevel Rockwell was born on Feb. 3, 1894 in New York, New York. As a boy he grew fond of the country, where he moved to a few years after he was born, and stayed away from the city as much as he could, which would later be shown in his works (Buechner, Retrospective, 24). When he was 14, he had to commute to New York City twice a week to attend the Chase School of Fine and Applied Art. After awhile he dropped out of his sophomore year of high school, and became a full time student at The National Academy School (Buechner, Artist, 38). He illustrated his first Saturday Evening Post cover on May 20, 1916, which was his first big break. Norman Rockwell says, If one wants to paint covers for the Post, one must begin by accepting certain limitations. The cover must please a vast number (no matter how: by amusing, edifying, praising; but it must please); it must not require an explanation or caption to be understood; it must have an instantaneous impact (people wont bother to pu zzle out a covers meaning) (The Norman Rockwell Album, 29). More people have seen Rockwells work, mostly on the covers on the widely circulated Saturday Evening Post, more than all of Michelangelos, Rembrandts, and Picassos put together, estimated by Life magazine (Walton 7). Rockwell creates his pictures in separate stages. First he makes a loose rough draft of his idea. Second, he gathers costumes, props and models. Rockwells models are usually his friends, because he knows them and likes them (Walton 16). Later on in Rockwells lifetime he would stray away from using real models, he would use photographs to do this step instead. He would take either sketches or pictures and then paint them onto canvas. Next he draws individual parts of the picture. Fourth, he would sketch the whole drawing in great detail. Fifth, he would put color into his sketches, and sixth he would put all the parts together ...

Personal and Professional Development Assignment - 12

Personal and Professional Development - Assignment Example So, I need to create a mindmap regarding self management of my learning and career in art. After setting my ultimate goal in life, I have set up short-term goal at various levels such as personal, educational, artistic, financial and so on with a definite time limit, which will enable to achieve big target of my life. After that, I always keep updating a to-do-list on daily basis to achieve my short-term goals (Developing Personal and Professional Skills | Faint Apogee - Academia.edu. 2015). I continue to reflect on my work with SWOT analysis of personality at regular intervals. This is best way to analyze the situation in hand and plan for next day. The regular SWOT analysis enables me to remind myself about my goal in life and remove any distraction which is impeding my progress towards the goal. I use most of the mediums for study of art which are available today such as regular lectures and mentoring in collage, visit galleries during exhibitions, interview artists when they are available and read miscellaneous art books in my spare time. I also browse art sites on internet and keep in touch with various artists on social networking sites and attend art workshops (Developing Personal and Professional Skills | Faint Apogee - Academia.edu. 2015). For staying on track, I need to review my goals and my achievement from time to time in an honest manner. For self-assessment, I am objective, honest, a relaxed manner and quiet environment among other things to assess strength and weakness. This is required for increasing commitment to set goals develop competencies in weak areas. There are many self assessment tools in market which are easy to access and thorough but, I like to do my self-appraisal with a very well known assessment tool which is used all over the world by companies regardless of their size and structure. This self assessment tool is known as SWOT analysis. Normally, this self- assessment tools is used