UNC System considers changes to admission requirements
RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) – The UNC System, which includes North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is considering changing admission requirements, such as bringing back standardized test scores for some students. Those changes would take effect in the fall of 2025.
The UNC System Board of Governors held a committee meeting Wednesday to discuss the proposed changes. Many board members and school chancellors said they support the proposal, but students have mixed reactions.
“I have to study a little bit for it, but I’m excited,” high school junior Chloe Dyczewski said.
Dyczewski and her mother are touring NC State. Dyczewski, who is from Pennsylvania, said she likes the university for the size, the football games and the warmer weather.
The news that UNC schools like NC State might bring back standardized test score requirements does not bother her, but she understands other people’s hesitation.
“I was going to take one anyways because I think it’s a good thing to have on your application. It shows like your academic ability in a way, but I think it’s kind of scary because if you didn’t end up taking one and they decide to have it as a requirement, then most people won’t be able to apply,” she said.
UNC schools previously required all students to submit standardized test scores, but in July 2020, the UNC System waived that requirement because of the pandemic. The waiver expires this fall. Under the waiver, more than half of the applicants did not submit a test score.
Under the proposed changes, UNC schools would raise the minimum GPA requirement to 2.8. Students whose GPA falls between 2.5 and 2.8 would have to submit an ACT or SAT score. Those test score requirements will be lower than current standards: an ACT score above 17 or an SAT score above 930.
“I have really bad test anxiety, so I was frightened. I took the SAT five times, ACT twice,” NC State graduate Sarah Mabe said.
Mabe, who graduated in December, did have to submit a test score when she applied to NC State. She said if she did not have that stress, her application might have been better.
“I think I would have been able to focus on other like extracurriculars or stuff like that that could have been a more well-rounded version of myself,” she said.
Mabe also said she feels for high school students who may now have to take standardized tests they were not expecting to.
“I think I would feel really disadvantaged, just not knowing what I’m walking into because some of my older classmates wouldn’t have advice either and I would probably feel really scared,” she said.
Another concern is money.
“I was enrolled in prep classes twice a week for six months beforehand and they helped a lot. But seven tests is a lot of money. Prep courses are a lot of money,” Mabe said.
One Board of Governors member did raise those financial concerns in Wednesday’s meeting. Estefany Gordillo-Rivas referenced a resolution passed by the UNC Association of Student Governments in January, which supported an “indefinite extension for waiving standardized testing submission.”
The Board of Governors committee will vote on these changes in April. If passed, the proposal will go to the full board for a vote in May.
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