The University of Tennessee at Knoxville (UTK) told The Tennessee Star that no one there can explain why home-schoolers are excluded from its test-optional admissions. Also excluded are those students whose schools didn’t use alpha or numerical grading systems. UTK’s test-optional policy will last until fall 2025.
“Unfortunately, we do not have anyone who can comment around that topic in particular at this time,” stated the UTK spokesperson.
No further explanation is available on the UTK website. However, all other students may take advantage of the test-optional policy. As The Star reported, those students must submit a personal essay in lieu of their ACT or SAT scores.
The prompt asks students to relay their personal history or examples of leadership.
“We believe Vol is a Verb and leadership is a willingness to act,” reads the prompt. “Provide an example of how you’ve demonstrated leadership to make a positive impact in your community (family, work, experience, school, community, service efforts, etc.). Describe the impact of your efforts and why it was meaningful to you.”
In UTK’s press release announcing their commitment to a test-optional admissions policy for the next four years, the university said that the decision had to do with equity.
“The University of Tennessee, Knoxville will make submitting ACT or SAT scores optional through the fall 2025 admissions cycle in an effort to make the application process for undergraduate admission more equitable for prospective students and their families,” read the press release. “A five-year extension of the test-optional process will help alleviate stress and anxiety for prospective students and provide greater flexibility for applicants who may have difficulty accessing tests.”
UTK also implied that they’re considering following in the footsteps of other universities who’ve made standardized testing optional. According to the press release, this five-year period will serve as a trial run of sorts. UTK officials will review the results to determine whether they will extend the test-optional policy beyond 2025.
“[C]ollege preparedness can be displayed in a variety of ways. UT’s application will give students the ability to showcase both academic and nonacademic talents, including leadership, community engagement, critical thinking, and intellectual curiosity,” stated UTK.
Fabrizio D’Aloisio, the UTK Associate Vice Provost for Enrollment Management and Undergraduate Admissions Executive Director, said that the five years would allow UTK to assess how effective admissions tests are for students.
UTK never responded to The Star with requested information about how they will weigh various factors in the admissions process.
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Corinne Murdock is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and the Star News Network. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to [email protected].
Discrimination at it’s finest.
Defund UT! Good thing Randy Boyd lost.
Way to go, UTK. I guess you’ll jump at the chance to admit those who write essays about burning down businesses, looting Target and Macy’s, turning over cop cars, and pulling down statues. ;-D What will you do when these geniuses can’t pass your classes? Give them degrees anyway?! Thanks for continuing to contribute to the downfall of our Republic.
“Fabrizio D’Aloisio…said that the five years would allow UTK to assess how effective admissions tests are for students.”
By not collecting any data?
Makes UTK look more desperate for customers and dipping into those who can’t score an 21 on the ACT….but their public school will graduate them with a 3.0 GPA.
How will the “test optional” UT students qualify for the lottery Hope Scholarships? With a 3.0 GPA. Homeschoolers have long been discriminated against here because their GPA is not allowed, they are forced to take the ACT and score a 21 to qualify. Public school students don’t have to do that…because equity.
” “Unfortunately, we do not have anyone who can comment around that topic in particular at this time,’ stated the UTK spokesperson”
A follow up question: If not “now”, when?
I am confident that this decisions was created spontaneously out of thin air all by itself. When is Lee and the Assembly going to hold the UTK administration responsible for blatant mismanagement and crass biasness?
If those wanting to apply for admittance are too dumb to score decently on a standardized test then they should not be admitted. Of course that will not happen and the requirements for graduation from UTK will continue to be dumbed down until it reaches what was once considered a high school education.
The human brain is a funny thing, you can cram all the information in the world into it,
and it still won’t have the sense to work a combination lock.
They are better known as “Educated Idiots”, and most of us over 30 years of age have known a few of these people, they’re quite common really.
Jame Madison was reported to have translated the first ten chapter of John from Hebrew to Latin, or vise versa, just to pass the test to enter college.
These test were a means to separate those who had “Real Intelligence’s” from those who had “Book Learning” but still couldn’t work a combination lock.
“Real Intelligence’s” otherwise known as “Common Sense” is becoming very rare today, consider the “Genius” who figured out the covid virus couldn’t jump high enough to get over or around that piece of plastic between you and the other person, nor could it pass through a mask with holes thousands of times larger that it.
It seems everybody from the President of the USA and all of our Colleges, right on down the lowest workers, are becoming Educated Idiots without the Common sense intelligence’s to combine all pieces of info together to figure out they have been scammed by a “Virus”.
Having a brain full of info is not intelligence, they must be able to correctly process that info, not everyone can do that, Testing was designed to separate these people, no one wins when one with the less abilities is educated at the expense of one with the most ability.
Jame Madison had more educated from High School than most College Presidents.
And my taxes fund this idiocy. The Lunatics are truly on the grass.
“As The Star reported, those students must submit a personal essay in lieu of their ACT or SAT scores”. How will they be literate enough to submit a personal essay? They have truly earned the name “The Dumbest Generation”, and it’s not their fault. Society and the government have condemned these students to a life of stupidity. The movie “Idiocracy” is no longer a satire. It’s a documentary.
>In UTK’s press release announcing their commitment to a test-optional admissions policy for >the next four years, the university said that the decision had to do with equity.
‘equity’ for their chosen groups – not homeschoolers.
hypocritical
Here’s an archaic idea, how about our state reps and senate cut funding to these socialist university’s? Quit funding them!!!