The Myths Of Merit Scholarships
At Forbes, I look at a new report from FairTest about the role of major tests like the SAT and ACT in merit scholarships.
Should high school students be prepping hard for SATs, and ACTs because the one true path to a college merit scholarship runs through those tests? A new report from FairTest (The National Center for Fair and Open Testing) suggests that it’s more complicated than that.
“Merit” Awards: Myths, Realities, & Barriers to Access sets out to look at the “lingering public perception” that most “merit” scholarships are based on major test scores.
It’s a perception that the testing companies and the test prep industry “aggressively promote,” a perception has become more important in marketing the big tests as more and more colleges and universities have made the tests optional or unnecessary for admission. The study found that roughly 80% of all colleges and universities are test optional, with just 9% requiring test scores.
Perceptions about merit scholarships matter because, for the last forty years, states have been shifting scholarship money away from needs-based and towards merit-based programs. Georgia, an extreme example, eliminated needs-based scholarships entirely a decade ago.
Yet the perception that merit scholarships are primarily about tests scores turns out to be incorrect. Of state merit scholarship programs, FairTest found that about half considered test scores. Among merit scholarship programs at “flagship” universities, FairTest found that only about a third required test scores.