SAT, TOEFL
 
In answer to Greg Berge's posting on Cornell's Etienne Belzile and his having
to take TOEFL (Test of English as Foreign Language), TOEFL is an admission
requirement for applicants 1)whose native/first language is not English; 2)who
have resided in the US for less than five years.  This requirement can be
waived if a student scores above a certain threshold on the Verbal SAT or
English Composition Achievement Test (ACH).  I imagined Etienne's verbal score
was low but his TOEFL was sufficiently high.  At Cornell we require a minimum
of 550 on the TOEFL (out of 677, I think) to be eligible to apply.  Engineering
would like to see at least 600 points.
 
For my college, we require SAT and three College Board Achievement Tests for
admission.  I'd also allow that applications missing Achievement Tests can be
reviewed, AT THE END OF THE ADMISSION cycle.  We reserve the right to deny
admission to any candidate even if he or she has met all other admission
requirements, except for the ACH.  Students who are admitted without one or
more ACH are required to take the tests prior to matriculation.  We will not
review any application without the SAT.
 
Keep in mind that this is one policy in one of the seven colleges at Cornell,
which means if you're a team coach, you have to be well acquainted with all
these rules from seven different colleges.  Not exactly an easy task, but a
necessary one, you would agree.  Often we do see recruited athletes coming
through the system without the required ACH scores.  I can only say that these
students are usually reviewed at a disadvantage, because we now have to put a
higher premium on other academic information, which sometimes is not most
stellar to begin with.
 
Let's take for example, a crew captain from Thomas Jefferson High School for
Science and Technology, in Alexandria, VA.  Let's say he has Verbal SAT 610,
Math SAT 720, Math 2 ACH 780, Physics ACH 680, English ACH 590, All A's in math
and science, from a most competitive magnet high school.  Although he is not
recruited by Cornell, he'll probably enter as a freshman in Engineering.  Now
take a recruited athlete from rural Maine, small high school, few students
going to 4-yr colleges, Verbal SAT 530, Math SAT 670, number 10 in the senior
class, A- average in math (including calculus), but only B in science.  Let me
ask you this question:  How do you think the recruited athlete compares to the
kid from Thomas Jefferson?  Without the Achievement Tests, I'd say we have less
ground to form an informed decision.  That is why we require all our applicants
to take these tests, not because they're fun, but because we think the
standardized tests can provide us with certain information that is "fair and
common" to all applicants.  They do help in the admission process.
 
This is only one example of how one college uses the scores.  I can't speak for
other institutions and would be interested in learning the philosophies to
which other schools subscribe.  If you have any comment or beef with what I
wrote, please send email privately to me.
 
Tom Y. Tseng '87
Associate Director of Admissions
College of Engineering
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY