Hampshire College’s Test-Blind Policy

BARRY CHEUNG
Staff Writer

On June 18, Hampshire College, a competitive four-year private liberal arts college, decided to enforce the “test-blind” policy. Hampshire College will no longer consider ACT or SAT scores when accepting applicants, because they believe it gives a disadvantage to students who do not come from wealthy families. According to a demographic conducted by the College Board, SAT scores, mainly the essay portion, match up with how much income a family makes.

“I believe that having a “test-blind” policy will be effective in the applicant accepting process because it will even up the odds for minorities, such as myself,” junior Andrew Payan said.

Hampshire believes that by accepting applicants based on non-test related aspects, such as their academic abilities and extracurricular activities, they will accept the most potential applicants. According to the Washington Post, the fact that the SAT or ACT can be taken multiple times benefits those who come from affluent families who apply to institutions that depend on standardized test scores, because they can increase their scores each time they have taken the test.

“The SAT is essentially one test on one day in a given year. Students’ high school academic records, their history of civic engagement, their letters of recommendation from mentors and their ability to represent themselves through their essays trump anything the SAT could tell us,” Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid of Hampshire College Meredith Twombly said.