Providence, RI -- Providence College will no longer require undergraduate applicants to submit SAT or ACT scores as part of the admission application. The new "test-optional" policy is effective immediately for students applying for admission in September 2007 (Class of 2011). Prospective students who choose not to submit standardized test scores will receive full consideration, without penalty, for admission.

The new policy is the second strategic initiative launched by Providence College to close the "student accessibility gap" since Rev. Brian J. Shanley, O.P., assumed office as president one year ago. He has pledged to attract more applicants from under-represented populations, including economically disadvantaged students from urban schools.

The first initiative, announced last July, saw the College shift a greater portion of its resources away from exclusively merit-based scholarships and towards need-based financial aid. Father Shanley has made increasing the College's endowment and its ability to fund 100 percent of student need a top priority for his administration.

"In today's highly competitive higher education environment, Providence College has grown increasingly concerned about prospective students, especially from historically under-represented populations, who are not gaining access to a private liberal arts education," notes Father Shanley in explaining the new test-optional initiative. "While we have always emphasized a holistic review of students' credentials for admission, there is mounting evidence that students and their parents, more than ever before, have become overly focused on improving standardized test scores."

Father Shanley further notes that economically disadvantaged students are less likely to have the resources necessary to participate in test preparation programs. "This reality has created an inequity that reveals itself in the correlation between family income and standardized test scores. As an institution founded to increase opportunities for first-generation immigrants, we find this morally troubling," continues Father Shanley.

"These students often are choosing mistakenly not to apply to private liberal arts colleges, like Providence College, which weigh other academic criteria far more than SAT and ACT test scores," explains Father Shanley.  "This has created an accessibility gap for students who have appropriate high school classroom preparation to succeed at a private college, but do not apply because they believe their test results eliminate them from consideration." Father Shanley cites as an example the published middle 50 percent range for SAT scores -- currently 1120-1290 for Providence College's class of 2010 -- as information that may discourage applications from students with strong high school records but lower test scores.

 "At Providence College," affirms Father Shanley, "we are determined to do what we can -- through admission policies and financial aid decisions -- to close this student accessibility gap."

Historically, Providence College has used a 'holistic" review of students' credentials, according to Christopher Lydon, associate vice president for admission and enrollment planning.

"Our experience and research confirm that the best predictor of academic success at Providence College is the rigor of a student's high school curriculum and the grades he or she earned -- not the standardized test scores," explains Lydon. "Our primary academic focus is on a prospective student's high school grade point average and the school's curriculum. Our evaluation also considers each candidate's extracurricular profile, the required essay, personal recommendations, and other pertinent information submitted."

The two strategic initiatives reinforce Providence College's founding mission as a Catholic and Dominican college: to provide a comprehensive liberal arts education to first-generation immigrant and multicultural students who might otherwise be unable to obtain a college degree.

For Father Shanley, himself a 1980 graduate of the College, this mission is very personal. "My father was a first-generation Irish immigrant who never could have achieved the success he did if Providence College had not offered him the opportunity to earn a degree here over fifty years ago," notes Father Shanley.

"My life, my education, and my vocation also are the direct result of my own opportunity to attend Providence," he adds. "It is now my privilege to affirm that in accord with our historic mission, we are expanding opportunity to more applicants with culturally diverse and socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds."

The decision to implement a test-optional policy -- which has been under consideration by College officials for more than a year -- was endorsed by the Faculty Senate during the spring semester and was approved by the senior administration in late June.

The test-optional policy at Providence College will be offered as a pilot program for the next four years, after which time it will be evaluated before permanent implementation. If test scores are available, students will be required to submit them after enrollment, to support academic advisement and to assist with the necessary studies for assessment of the pilot program.

For the last ten years, Providence College has been ranked in its category as one of the top two universities in the north region in U.S. News' America's Best Colleges. Internal research indicates it is the first institution among its top ten U.S. News peers in each of four geographic regions to implement a test-optional admission policy. Providence is the second Catholic institution among over 200 four-year Catholic colleges and universities in the nation to adopt a test-optional policy.

Providence College is the only college or university in the United States administered by the Dominican Friars, a Catholic religious order dedicated to the pursuit of truth and to a spirituality that embraces the whole person. The liberal arts college has an undergraduate enrollment of approximately 3,800 students and offers degrees in 48 academic majors.

For more information, please visit www.providence.edu/testoptionalpolicy.

RELATED STORY: From The Providence Journal -- 7/26/06

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