To submit or not to submit, that is the question.
In light of the opportunity that you all had this past Saturday morning to suffer the slings and arrows for several hours with your number 2 pencil, I thought it was time to address the standardized test affair.
When we made the decision to go test-optional a few years back, initially we heard a great sigh of relief from students, parents and guidance counselors across the land. But soon, we realized that this decision would have unexpected consequences – applicants now were pressed with the decision of whether or not to submit their standardized test scores and this created its own form of anxiety.
But students lose sight of what we know all too well — your file in the Admissions Office at Holy Cross will be filled with four years worth of stories of your accomplishments, hopes, wishes, desires, perspective and character and none of these things, I repeat, none of these things fit within those five identical circles labeled A-B-C-D-E.
So submit or don’t submit – it’s completely up to you but know that we made the decision to go optional because standardized testing is simply not a big part of our decision making process. We’re quite capable of making decisions on applications without standardized test scores. If you don’t submit your scores, we simply don’t discuss the matter. If you do submit your scores, they will be a part of our process but a very small part.
But don’t worry about making this decision now. After you’ve submitted your application to Holy Cross, we will send you a verification form. On that form, we will ask you to re-verify a few key pieces of information and also ask you once and for all whether you’d like us to use your standardized test scores as part of your application.
In closing, I’d like to send my thanks to the students I saw on Friday at Brooks School, Lawrence Academy and Groton School. You guys made waking up at 5:15 in the morning well worth it.
Andrew N Carter
Associate Director of Admissions
