Latino, Black Students Flock to University after it Drops Testing Requirement

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Temple University in Philadelphia experienced a surge in Latino and black student applications after it dropped its requirement for prospective students to submit SAT or ACT scores, Education Dive reports.

Temple is the first public research university in the Northeast to allow students to apply without an SAT or ACT score—tests often criticized as poor indicators of college success—joining more than 800 colleges, or 30% of bachelor’s-degree-granting schools, that don’t require such scores, Philly.com reports.

Prospective students can apply to Temple with their test scores, or instead write four essays that assess leadership, goals, etc.

The result?

Temple had a record 30,000 applicants, one-fourth who did not submit test scores.

The university’s percentage of incoming Latino and black students is 26% and 22% higher than last year, respectively.

“By giving students more choices, we open doors to more first-generation students and those from underserved communities whose enormous academic promise may be overlooked by conventional measures of achievement,” said Temple President Neil D. Theobald in a 2014 press release announcing the change. “In short, we want students who do not perform well on these standardized tests to know that at Temple, you are more than a test score.”