PROVIDENCE -- Providence College will no longer require applicants to take the Scholastic Assessment Test or another standardized college entrance exam, the ACT, as part of its admissions process, making it the first four-year institution in Rhode Island to adopt a "test-optional" policy.

High school seniors applying to the Catholic college for acceptance in September 2007 without the test scores "will receive full consideration, without penalty, for admission," according to a statement released today.

Providence College's president, the Rev. Brian J. Shanley, said three factors convinced him to make the policy change: evidence that test scores were not as good an indicator of student performance as grades and the rigor of classes in high school; a desire to increase access to minority and first-generation college students; and a perceived inequity in the current college application process.

"From a moral point of view, the idea that if you have the economic resources to take a test prep course and it gives you a competitive advantage over students who can't take the test -- there is something wrong about that," Father Shanley said. "We were founded to be a school of opportunity for first-generation immigrants and people who otherwise wouldn't get a college degree, and I feel a moral imperative to stay true to our mission."

Popular test preparation courses, such as Kaplan and The Princeton Review, cost $900 to $1,000, an amount out of reach for many of the students Providence College would like to attract.

"The primary issue is access to higher education, especially for populations that feel priced out or unable to compete because there's a sense that private colleges have become so competitive that you can't be accepted if you don't have the right numbers," said Christopher Lydon, associate vice president for admission and enrollment planning at PC. "We hope that by going test optional, students who may not be the best test takers will continue to consider us."

As PC has risen steadily through national rankings in the past decade, including the influential U.S. News & World Report, the average SAT score for the school has also risen, to a range of 1,120 to 1,290, Lydon said. Becoming more selective has enhanced PC's reputation, but has not helped the college become as diverse as administrators would like. Minority students will make up 11.5 percent of this year's incoming class -- almost double the percentage from five years ago, but still well below where the college would like to be, Father Shanley said.

"In some ways, this is personal for me, because my father was the first generation in his family to go to college, when he came to Providence College on the GI Bill. And it changed my family dramatically, because of the opportunity he had," said Father Shanley, who grew up in Warwick and graduated from PC in 1980. "I want Providence College to continue to be a place for students whose parents didn't go to college to come here and change the arc of their families' lives."

DOZENS OF OTHER colleges have decided to drop SAT and ACT scores from their admissions requirements, including Bates College in Maine, which was one of the first prestigious colleges to become "test optional" two decades ago. More recently, both Mount Holyoke College in western Massachusetts and the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester have decided to not require college entrance exam scores.

"I talked to the president of Holy Cross about it, and he said they have really increased their applicant pool and diversity," Father Shanley said. "We think we're at the crest of a wave that a lot of other schools will follow."

The College Board, which administers the SAT, defends standardized tests, saying they offer colleges one more piece of information by which to judge students. In addition, SAT scores are a neutral, consistent gauge of student performance, in contrast to high schools throughout the country that use different criteria for grading, said Caren Scoropanos, a spokeswoman for the College Board.

PC administrators say they expect about 75 percent of students who apply to PC will choose to submit test scores. For the 25 percent who elect not to, they will be required to do so after they have enrolled at the college.

"Some of our programs have found some validity in the SAT scores in helping to advise students," Lydon said, such as placing students in freshman writing and pre-med courses. In addition, college administrators want to analyze the progress of students who chose not to submit SAT scores, looking at retention and graduation rate data, Lydon said.

DROPPING THE TEST score requirement is just one step PC is taking to make the college more accessible to low-income, first-generation and minority students, say administrators.

In the year since Father Shanley became president, the college has also shifted more scholarship money away from merit-based financial aid to need-based aid. Last year, the college dispersed $2.8 million in academic merit scholarships and $5.2 million in need-based aid, Lydon said.

The percentage of first-generation college students is increasing, from 9.5 percent two years ago to 11.4 percent for this fall's incoming class. The college, which is run by Dominican friars, has about 3,800 undergraduates and 900 graduate students. Tuition and fees, room and board costs about $36,000 a year.

Today, the college can afford to cover about 85 percent of the demonstrated financial need of its students, and is working to boost its endowment, currently about $135 million.

"The schools we aspire to compete against fund 100 percent of demonstrated need," said Father Shanley.

jjordan@projo.com / (401) 277-7254

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