LA VERNE, Calif. – As the University of California is being sued over its use of SAT and ACT scores in its admission process, a local university has removed the tests as a requirement for admission.

The University of La Verne is now test optional, which gives high school students the option to submit their scores. The university is joins hundreds of colleges and universities across the country that are test optional, according to the National Center for Fair and Open Testing.

Admissions officials at the University of La Verne say they made the policy change to give applicants more flexibility, and further open its doors to minority and low-income students.

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“We know that test scores like the SAT and the ACT are more closely correlated with family income than anything else,” said Mary Aguayo, Vice President of Strategic Enrollment Management. “About half of our students are low income, coming from PELL eligible families, and we want to provide them with the support to be the first in their family to graduate college. Being test-optional aligns with who we serve, how we serve them and who we are as an institution.”

The policy change affects twelfth graders like Alonzo Canete at Damien High School, who applied to the University of La Verne. He received a score of 1300 out of 1600 on the exam, and decided to include his score with his application. But he thinks test-optional will make more students more confident applicants.

“A lot can go wrong on the SAT. You could be having a bad day, you could be nervous,” said Canete. “Whereas GPAs and extracurriculars those are things that you work on overtime so those are I think the best indicators of who you are as a person instead of a test you take on a single day.”

Aguayo agrees. She has heard the argument that becoming test-optional may allow students who are unprepared for college to be admitted, and may be lowering the academic standard. But she feels more consideration should be given to recommendations and GPA.

“There is a lot of national data that supports that the tests are not as predictive of students’ success in college as students’ coursework and we find that to be the case as well when we look at our own student data,” Aguayo said. “It’s really about other things: their grit and determination, their ability to work hard to accomplish their goals, those are the things that make a successful college graduate.”

Test-optional admission is available for students applying to the spring 2020 semester and beyond.