What my test scores say about me

As I wrap up my final class of my undergraduate career, I begin the next phase of the “real” world and reflect on the last five years of schooling. I know I’ve written plenty on my experiences at university and other college experience-related topics but one more wouldn’t hurt right? (And any other that come here after…)

A few months ago, I came across this article in my RSS feeds written by Liz Dwyer from GOOD magazine. The title, “Can students’ personal lives predict their chances of graduating from college?” got me thinking about my own personal life and how it affected my time at university. I think it can, but sometimes even those predictions may not turn out the way you expect. There’s an argument that suggests high school grades, extracurricular activities,  and SAT scores don’t tell college admissions the whole story about the potential student looking to attend a particular university, and knowing how mediocre my test scores were, I agree. The article talks about a report done by the UCLA ‘s Higher Education Research Institute and the different correlations that exist between students’ lives and the likelihood that students will graduate from college, looking at things like financial, demographic, level of school guidance and family education history. The report is interesting and I suggest you take a gander at it, but I wanted to talk about my experiences.

My family and I lived overseas on a military base. My experiences were “normal” (whatever the means) – we weren’t poor, and we weren’t extravagantly rich. Schooling was important but emphasis was made on learning outside of the classroom as well, and enjoying life at the same time – like camping and skiing. My parents were great mentors. Always supportive, and continue to be so despite the occasionally expressed doubts (but what parent doesn’t show some doubt about their child’s goals? After all, they don’t want to see them fail.).

My performance academically was very good. Not quite the consistent 4.0+ student, but I never fell below a 3.0. I never took an AP course in high school, but that’s from a lack of interest. I was “guided” not to. The only time college was ever part of the conversation with the guidance counselors was when they advertised the pre-SAT and SAT. I could be wrong, but as far my memory serves, I don’t remember ever talking to any guidance counselor about college or the college admissions process. Then again, my guidance counselor wasn’t good. At all. (Was it because I was a girl? or because I wasn’t in JROTC like all the other good military kids?)

My SAT scores bombed. If admission to college was solely based on SAT scores, I probably would never be accepted by any school. They weren’t horrible. Just below mediocre. But what does that reveal about me, as a person? Nothing. My school work was great, and though I never volunteered, I participated in extracurricular activities like soccer, track and jazz ensemble. I became a leader in the school’s marching/concert band.

But none of this accurately reflects who I am as a person, and these things in themselves wouldn’t have indicated my success rate in college.

I applied to only one school. Was rejected. Waited a year after high school before moving to the states. Despite the strangeness in the way I approached these phases in life, it all worked out. I started out at a community college, which allowed me to establish state residency. I transferred to a state university – paying in-state tuition, which saved my parents thousands of dollars.

I didn’t do the college visits or overnight “freshman connection” programs. Living overseas makes it difficult, and expensive. And the virtual tours only do so much.

When I was getting ready to transfer from community college to university, I was concerned my superb grades wouldn’t be enough to get me in because despite all the hard work I had put into these CORE courses, they still wanted my SAT scores. They already rejected me once, what’s to stop them from doing it again? Needless to say, I was accepted and started my long and worthwhile college journey.

Where my academic performance in high school was great, everything seemed to fall apart in college. I saw my GPA plummet with every passing semester, to the point where I was cordially asked to leave for the semester. With half of my degree requirements completed, I didn’t think I would recover from this semester “break” and considered dropping out. (That’s something my background would never have predicted.) I was getting tired of school and I was frazzled. But I stuck to it and came back the following semester with a renewed sense of self, purpose and motivation. The following two semesters were a struggle, trying to get my GPA back up but I did it.

It was a rough start getting back into the groove of things and while I’m to blame for my own mishaps, I’m disappointed that the university didn’t really do much to help. Yeah, it’s not the university’s responsibility to help every student who’s having troubles, but I don’t think I’m alone in saying that the university could do better in advertising the number of counseling programs available, and not just sending out emails with blips about “leadership” courses and “organization” courses that are one credit each. Taking a UNLV course, while may help some students, doesn’t exactly address the down moments I had in school.

After browsing the university’s website, I eventually found the help I needed with an academic counselor who taught me how to reduce anxiety and stress with organizational techniques. I learned a lot about time management and organization in academics, but the real help came when this academic counselor referred me to the counseling center. The place where they help students address issues like depression.

I went and did my intake for a group counseling session, was admitted, and started my three months as a member of a small group that met together once a week to talk. To vent our thoughts and unload our minds. To get us un-distracted so we can perform better academically. It helped. I noticed I was getting better after each week of going to the meeting, and was afraid for the next semester because of a class that conflicted with the counseling session.

At times I thought I was losing it, but found ways to vent my anxiety and frustrations (hooray for hobbies!). I still wish I was able to attend the meetings but I made it through the next two semester without incident, and have now completed my final course (which, incidentally was the best fucking course next to Capital News Service I ever took at the university…).

SAT scores may be good for colleges looking to boost the image they want to portray, by accepting high-score students, but it doesn’t tell them anything about the student. My SAT score, or high school and transfer transcript doesn’t say anything about the way I perform or what foibles I’m prone to. And high scores doesn’t necessarily translate to studious.

There are other factors that affect whether someone will finish college or not, like finances, but I agree with the GOOD article. If colleges want to really help with student retention and graduation rates, they need to look beyond the scores and grades and over-achieving list of extracurricular activities. There’s needs to be a revolution in education. I also think professors, even the adjunct faculty, need to work more at being mentors. Not all students are quick to building relationships with their professors that could help them in the long run. Sometimes, I think the professors need to take the initiative to help students who seem to be holding back. Horrible professors aside, I know I could have benefited from professor-student relationships, but I was timid and at the time, I didn’t think I really needed to be “buddies” with them.

Oh, the naïveté of the young.

What experiences did you have with college admissions? Do you think SAT scores are sufficient information for colleges to go on when making decisions on who’s accepted, or are there ways colleges can consider other aspects of a student’s personal life when deciding whether to accept or reject the student’s application? Share! Leave a comment!

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