It is a well-known fact that the University of Wyoming is easy to get into. There is no essay to write, letters of recommendation to submit or long wait list to slog through in order to attend.
The requirements are incredibly simple: have a high school GPA of 3.0 and an ACT score of 21, according to the admission requirements web page, and UW opens its arms.
But, there is debate around campus questioning if the ACT score requirements are too low.
The national average ACT score for 2010 was 21 according to act.org. UW’s ACT requirement is equal to the national average, but some wonder if the bar should be raised.
UW is not an Ivy League school, nor should it strive to be. While other schools in the region, such as CSU and BYU, require higher ACT scores, UW is not an inferior school. It competes on equal ground both athletically and academically with other schools in the region, even with lower admission requirements.
Research has concluded that ACT scores correlate to college success only up to a certain point. In other words, students can have high ACT scores and still drop out of college in their first year, or students with low ACT scores could go on to earn their doctorates.
In order to be successful in college both hard work and book smarts are required.
What the ACT does is attach a number to students’ intelligence much like an IQ score. Numbers are an easy way to quickly compare students to one another, but also carry the risk of oversimplification.
The ACT measures generalized information and as a result allows little room for creativity and original thought.
There is no sure fire way to measure someone’s potential to learn and work hard, although both the ACT and IQ will claim they can. It is all too easy to reward students who perform well and punish those who perform poorly. What the ACT measures is a student’s ability to take a test and little more. This system makes it hard for people who did not perform well on a test at age 17 to get into college.
UW needs to remember that 40 percent of its students are nontraditional students who did not go to college straight out of high school.
By raising the ACT score requirements, many students will not be accepted, and UW will miss out on many potential students and free thinkers.
If students want to go to a school with a lower admission rate, let them apply to Harvard or Yale, but let UW remain a place that welcomes students from all walks of life, not just those who performed well in high school.
