Understanding Test Optional Policies for U.S. Universities

[Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] hi everyone my name is Tiffany I'm from Beijing China I I go to a private university hello everyone this is a I'm from Mumbai India I go to a public university my name is Fatima originally from Nigeria I go to an HBCU meaning historically black colleges my name is T and I'm from Vietnam I go to a community college I want to be able to influence the world and United States stands out as a pay seter in research I'm so excited about being here in my Ian usdc extremely impressive and that makes Jing abroad in the US an excellent choice there are many types of institutions in the United States I think it's just so unique that there's so many to choose from I had to make a major choice between the type of University that I was supposed to attend the major factor that I considered was the scholarship opportunities that were available and the alumini network I've heard so much about the HBC used as historically black colleges I chose those because I wanted a school that really represents me as a Humanity student I prefer seminars instead of lectures because I find myself better understand the material if we get to discuss it in class that led into my decision of going to a private university I chose a community college to study because most of the Community College offer affordable costs and they are often offer a lot of Majors you can choose from some of the things I find are in common between different types of institutions in the US is that the curriculum are more comprehensive it is more practical oriented that really helps you get hands-on experience about what you're learning student can benefit from Forward Thinking technology and modern flexibilities and I love the diversity the fact that it's the Melting Pot for everywhere in the world and so it's awesome experience for me hello everyone and Welcome to our today's sessions I'm very happy to have you all here um and I'm very excited for our today's topic uh so guys uh my name is alen yakubov I am education USA advisor and we are here with another interesting topic related to the test optional policy and we have here two guest speakers we have Carl from Northwestern University Qatar and we have Alex and glender uh from um um assistant director of graduate admission and brince La Institute so um we would like to talk with you more today about the test optional policy because we know that you are very very interested to have more information on that but what I'm going to do is I'm going to just go over the test optional policy and tell you more what would that mean and how does it work so um I think it will be good just to have a better perception on how the test optional um on how to test optional is also considered uh this times so as you know since the pandemic most colleges have introduced more flexibility and choice in the admission process so they've adopted the test optional policy so uh that means that you wouldn't be anymore uh it wouldn't be anymore mandatory to have the SAT and the ACT test and um today we're going to discuss specifically about how this CH how this things change because we can see that there is um there is a higher interest from the universities to go back to um to have having the sat and sat and other test as uh as mandatory so uh that's why we have our invitees today we really wanted to have their opinion on how does it work and how does apply in their institution specifically so I would just stop a bit and leave everyone to introduce their themselves so let's start with Carol and let her tell more about um about their school and tell us more about what exactly are the program and the majors that uh that theud students can uh can apply for thank you Alina this is a very interesting topic uh regarding test optional uh we uh are Northwestern University in Qatar uh of course Northwestern University is number nine Nationwide uh in the UN United States uh in Qatar we only offer journalism and communication so this is the top major at the main campus and uh this is what was brought to uh Qatar Under the Umbrella of Qatar Foundation Education City so um being a journalism or communication program it is a very creative one which uh not we don't not only look at the transcript or academics of the student we would like to see creative and talented ones so um it's correct what you said uh since the pandemic we turned into test optional but we because we stress a lot on writing and we need students uh um let's say their writing skills so they we need to see strong English background that's why we ask for the TOEFL or the is or dualingo um so this is an introduction uh just a small one and I will answer your questions once you uh ask them sure thank you okay Alex let's over you yes good uh good afternoon good morning PE everyone uh my name is Alex Englander I'm assistant director of graduate admissions at rensler Polytechnic Institute uh we are in Troy New York uh we implemented a test optional policy for graduate school or for graduate programs back during the pandemic um and so far it's been uh very well received uh we only have one program that currently requires the GRE or the GMAT and that is our cognitive Science Program um but for the most part uh we think that the test optional has been helpful and really what that means for a graduate student is um you don't have to submit the gr or the GMAT scores to be considered for admission if you do submit those scores they need to help your uh your application you should not submit scores that are going to take away from the application and I'll get into more of that uh as we go further but it's a pleasure to be here thank you very much Alina thank you so much for attending uh okay so what I think it's uh it's going to be also good and nice to talk about is um actually how would that work so we shared um a list of questions that we will um we'll go over and we will um ask our speakers to answer it um and I think that's the beauty of having these two speakers which are um which are from different um one of them is for undergraduate degree and the other one would be for the postgraduate degree so they can answer you know from different perspective how this test optional policy would work and um afterwards guys during this month as you might know and you can see on our website also we will also have speakers from ETS from college board and from dualingo and they will give you more perspective on what are the CH changes that have been uh adopted uh in the last period for the stize test and what are the structure and nuances you should consider when uh when preparing for uh for such a test okay so let's start with the questions that we have prepared you guys also can address them you have here the comment section so please feel free to ask any type of question questions that um you think it might help you you can also address US questions about the application process for these two uh institutions so um we'll also leave you the contact information for Carol and Alex but now let's start with questions okay so one of the first question which I think is uh very um you know it's we we are frequently uh having it from our students is how does the absence of standardized test course affect the evaluation of the application so let's start with Carol if you can say how that would work at Northwestern okay now we have like I said switched to test optional regarding sat or act but we still ask for the TOEFL or the Isles and uh in addition to that we look at the English Standard of the student through the high school transcript we ask for the last three years of school uh and we would like to see high scores in Engish English so uh basically I mean we accept any student from any school but we have to see a good standard in the English language based on tol or is or dingo or the English at the school can you say what would be the minimum score like for example for every one of that test I mean there is a minimum but in the end it's a competition uh so I mean we say the minimum score for the is let's say is is a six for the tol is uh 105 and for the DU lingo a minimum score of 125 okay that's very great to know do you have something else to add here Carol or uh I mean again and we are we have a holistic decision we will not look at only the scores the test scores we will look at everything so uh a student um not offering us a a standardized test score does not mean that they are not eligible or if they do it will not add value that's a thing I think that's a perfect answer and the students need to know that there are schools where they can get without having those tests so uh so I think that's that's very useful to to know that they should concentrate more for example on their English proficiency and concentrate on on the test that you have specified and uh and yes and not having the cized test like sat or act for undergraduate degree that that doesn't mean that it's the end of the world you have still other options in Cas if you are very proficient in English okay Alex how is it working for rlar poly Technic Institute so you know um when a student submits their application uh it is optional uh for international students they you need to submit just like Northwestern TOEFL dualingo uh IELTS or pte um and those are mandatory with a few exceptions those exceptions are on our website um other than that uh you know the the GRE is optional with the exception of cognitive science uh if they choose to submit GRE scores uh they need to be uh the verbal should be in the mid 150s and the quantitative should be in the 160s that's what we're looking for especially the quantitative because we are a stem school we have lots of stem programs and you need to know you need to be uh good at quantitative analysis um but how it affects a uh an application we review applications holistically so we look at a student's uh the whole package uh their resume their statement of purpose or personal statement that's very important uh we look at their letters of recommendation um we look at their transcripts obviously uh you know no one of those will disqualify a student and you know if you don't have great grades um then I that's when I would suggest you take the GRE or the GMAT and you submit those scores um if you have a 4.0 don't because the gr unless you do you know get in the 99th or 998th percentile they're going to hurt you and if you submit bad scores that is when uh they will say okay well there's a disconnect here between the Gres and their transcript um so really what a student should do is contact us in the office of admissions and ask us about uh you know if they have taken the Gres if they should submit those scores um ultimately is their decision and we always leave it up to them um because we cannot make their decisions on how to submit a a good application but we can advise them on different ways to go about it um you know I think the uh the overall evaluation of trans of applications though without the Gres has really helped students overall okay and would that affect a graduate student in case if he would have I don't know the GRE or GMAT would that affect his possibility of getting financed so it wouldn't no okay so the way funding works here uh if a student applies to our PhD program most of our PhD students do receive full funding um if they are a master student especially in our uh School of Management uh we offer a very generous uh merit-based scholarship and that has nothing to do with the submission of standardized tests okay perfect um okay so you both specified about the holistic admission I think Alex even went a lot into details but I would like to stop more on that and tell if you can just tell us more on how exactly would you review a candidates profile and his application as a whole uh as he wouldn't have his uh test option he wouldn't have his standardized test I mean the uh the SAT or act J or jat so if you can just describe the holistic review process and how it applies to test optional applicants uh Carol can you give us more introduction on that yes now regarding um our applicants uh there are certain uh requirements that the students has to offer us uh to be able to read his application um now what we concentrate on is a writing supplement that is called why Northwestern so the students have to show us their interest this is one important factor another uh thing is a personal essay which is optional but students doing it or writing it it will add value to the application it shows that the student is really interested and we hear a story about this person um another very important thing is the uh uh of course the transcripts are important again the English part of it and because we are a liberal arts school we will look at subjects like history geography economics business we want to see those subjects and we want to see high grades so in for example we see all of this for a certain student but the element of interest is missing that's where the holistic decision comes in we want to how interested is this student did this person uh attend any of our virtual or in-person events did they ask for an interview did they um uh for example uh did they interact in any way with our students with staff all of this because of our uh um system where we capture all the students who interact with us if we do not see any of this and we have a top Stu academically top student again it will not help them we want to see a full rounded student so um answering your question what factors I mean everything matters everything so uh the V there is no certain weight on transcripts or English proficiency everything matters uh Talent anything so this is how we look at the applications okay perfect Alex certainly so uh when we get an application we have a scoring rubric uh and the scores May uh each component of the uh application has a score has a ranking um you know the uh uh personal statement uh is scored I think it's one through five um and what we look for in a personal statement is why do they want to come to RPI uh what field do they want to pursue why do they want to pursue it what faculty members are they looking to work with what is their research interest um we look at all of that and then we create a score uh you know did they cover everything that they want that we needed in the uh in the personal statement and the same thing is true with the uh letters of recommendation you know is it a solid positive recommendation is it a lukewarm recommendation is it a bad recommendation and all those components receive a score at the end uh we add up the the points that the student has received and that is then there's a threshold of whether they are admitted or not admitted um so really you know what the student wants to do uh especially you know this would be great for the uh analytical students out there uh is they want to Jin up their scores they want to get a highest score as possible on their application um now if they submit Gres or the GMAT um that's not scored there is no point value to the GRE or the GMAT so if they don't submit it there's no score if they do submit it there is no score if they submit and there are really good uh exam grades uh and they're kind of borderline then the faculty could say well you know this person submitted excellent uh GRE scores so that could Elevate them if they're right on the border uh into being admitted um but there's no score uh associated with the gr and so it's not it really has no uh no place in our scoring rubric uh for the admissions um now the tol IELTS uh those are scored uh students need to meet the minimum qualifications minimum standards for uh IELTS tol Etc um they need to meet the minimum uh GPA uh so there are minimums that they need to meet uh outside of the GRE uh in order to be to be considered for admission okay perfect uh so you already specified that um some um I mean for Northwestern definitely there uh there is no test that they are requiring the optional ones um but uh how would you track the success and performance of student admitted uh under the test optional policy uh so for example even they um about their academic um um their academic s success during the Academic Year how would it be rated and um in case um if that's for the example Alex I will also give it you specifi that for the cognitive science uh they would have to take the GRE uh how would that work in case um I mean it's not test optional you said they that's mandatory for them to take the J in yeah go on yeah the GRE is mandatory for this one program um and that's because the program is a is very complex um and it draws on both science and Humanities uh so we really want a good uh a good idea if this student is proficient in those areas okay and how about the other students uh in case if they have been admitted as I've said under the under the test optional policy um how how would they how would it would be for them how would you track their success um if they graduate okay honestly we we know uh I'm not aware of any tracking that we do of test optional versus students who uh submit their scores as far as I am aware um you know once they are admitted you know their application is their application they start with a clean slate and and uh we expect the students to do their work uh and do very well uh usually when a student does come to The Graduate School uh and I'm sure uh Carol could attest to this at the undergraduate side you know we expect them to do very well um and uh for the most part students do do very well especially at this caliber of institution like Northwestern and RPI uh we're not admitting uh borderline students here we're admitting some of the best students in in the country and in the world okay that Carol if you can add something here yeah it's true I mean we are even more selective than the main campus we have a small campus and we have a limited number of students we can take so we will be choosing uh very high standard students we expect that when they come they will be uh having um no issues uh and specifically that we don't have scientific subjects that require um you know success in uh in the test like the S mainly is uh required at uh medical schools engineering schools uh this is what it is important for and uh it is necessary but for us it's not So based on their English language this is uh This Is How They we evaluate them okay also another question that I wanted to give uh so um during this uh test optional policy that has been working are you also introducing interviews with the students to test their English proficiency or is it sufficiency for them to have only their English score only the toyl is or dualingo how is it working for B institutions Carol if you can say about uh no we don't have a test uh I mean for us the we trust the is or the tol or the dingo plus the we of course we um authenticate their transcripts the high school transcripts and we um I mean we trust the schools and the system but we do not have another testing uh system after the student or before the student is admitted okay so for us um if we receive a student uh ielt tol scores um sometimes and this is very rare but sometimes a department may decide or program may decide to interview that student if they excel in a certain area if they have you know an amazing transcript but just their uh English proficiency scores are a little bit lower than what we're looking for they may choose to interview uh the student especially on the PHD side because they want to know uh if they would be able to uh teach a class because we have teaching assistantships um so there may be an interview especially for our TA or ra positions uh for students who may not have done uh well on their uh their English proficiency exams um it's not for everybody um and what happens then is uh if they are admitted with low uh ielt scores they may be enrolled into uh an English class um to help them grasp get a better grasp of the English language um while they're during their first year because we really want them obviously the classes are taught in English um we want them to succeed and if they're not understanding what is uh going on if they're not understanding the language or if they're not able to write proficiently uh then there's going to be a problem okay that I think that sounds good and in case if the student would start the English course Alex I would just be more uh I would just ask for more details on that um then definitely the students will be tracked and he will have some tests that will prove that he succeeded to have a good level yes yes OB yes they they would need to make a certain score to to pass the class um I I am pretty certain and I don't have a lot to do with this actually I don't have anything to do with this area but um you know the the department really tries to work with their graduate students uh with their language skills um because we're investing a lot of money into them and uh we want them to succeed and we want them to do well so they will they will work with the student and they will do what they can to help them okay perfect um the other question uh and um I will just say that um if Carol in your case uh if you can just tell us more about also the scholarships and financial aid that Northwestern would provide to undergrad students so even though they have um a limited number of programs that are available specifically in qar uh if you can just tell us um I mean even though there is not the test optional policy that is working if you can just tell us on the on the scholarships and the financial aid how how is it um how is it working for undergraduate students and on what they can count do the what are the types of scholarships they can receive yes so regardless of test optional or whatever now uh we have two ways to finance the students uh like I mentioned before we are under the umbrella of Qatar Foundation where uh they have a program for all the Education City universities so any student who applies to one of those universities they can apply for financial aid this is a need based program so depending on the need of the family they will provide a certain amount or certain percentage of the tuition fee some students receive 10% some 50 some 100% some 100% plus accommodation depending on the need like I said and this is a loan after they uh graduate they can pay this loan back uh on an installment basis up to 15 years and interest free uh this is one way to pay it back the other way to pay it back is to work in for six years uh uh at an approved organization they receive their full salary nobody takes any money from them it's like community service but they live in Qatar and they they support the country um the other way to support the finances is a full merit scholarship very selected students top uh of let's say the pool of what we see receive a full marit scholarship with with which includes four years of the tuition fee plus accommodation so but these are very I mean they have to be very unique and this this year we gave to 12 students uh and and um I mean the the ones we gave all of them attended this is the nice thing about it so um this is how our uh finances or financial aid and scholarships work in at Northwestern Qatar uh and can you pleas please specify how many International students had you had like also related to the Merit Scholarships uh and from what countries maybe that will also give the students a better understanding uh what are the countries that uh that are on the campus in Qatar uh okay we this year I mean okay Qatar is let me explain something Qatari Nationals the government pays for their uh education whether in Qatar or wherever they go to so qataris are not included International the rest are all International but some who who live in Qatar who have gone to schools in Qatar they are considered um experts but the uh we re we gave uh two expats and the rest were all International students coming from abroad nationalities from we had different nationalities we had Palestinian we had from kazakistan we had from Armenia uh we had from Brazil uh we had from China um we have we had so many different nationalities this year okay that's good to know because we cover the central Asia part so guys if you are really interested about the Merit Scholarships at Northwestern I think you can also get back with an uh with an email to uh to Carol because we'll leave her contact information good Alex how is it working for uh renar poly Technic Institute so at The Graduate level um all financial aid decisions all funding decisions are at the program level which means they apply to uh physics PhD uh the physics department makes the decision on whether that student would receive funding or not so a student would submit their application uh after an admiss decision is made obviously if the student is uh admitted then they go on to be evaluated for funding and this is for the PHD uh the uh admissions committee would meet again uh after they make the decision on the uh admission and they would then decide uh funding of the student and what lab the student would be in who would be the Super supervisor all of that and once a decision is made then a letter would be sent to the student outside of graduate admissions um informing them that they had received funding uh the funding uh is uh administered by the program it is not administered by the uh by the office of admissions we have nothing to do with how the student is funded um um now we also offer Master students a uh merit-based scholarship uh usually it's up to about 40% those scholarships are determined at the time when admissions is offered so they evaluate the application for admission and then they evaluate the application for the merit scholarship and if a student is going to receive a merit scholarship that letter is usually sent if not at the same time as their admissions decision it is sent shortly thereafter within a day or two usually um now and this is for both domestic and international uh applicants um so there is no uh federal aid component um obviously domestic students here in the United States they can apply for uh federal student St loans um to supplement the master scholarship on the international side uh there are options available there are uh student loan corporations that do lend to International uh students um there are also a lot of scholarships available to International students and I would suggest that anybody who is interested in pursuing a master's degree uh at the United States in the United States they first start with their Ministry of Education because a lot of countries their governments will pay for them to go uh to another country to get their master's degree or graduate degree and then come back um so that's where I would suggest they start uh and we're also very uh we will do we will try to help them as much as possible and point them in the right direction uh where to uh find the uh scholarships they're looking for um I would also recommend if a student is interested in studying here in the United States and this is regardless of whether it's RP or not uh that when they are filling out their application they start looking at uh scholarships and fill out scholarship information as well because a lot of scholarship deadlines are going to be in the spring when the application deadlines are as well and you don't want to wait until you've been admitted before you start looking for scholarships okay that totally makes sense thank you so much for this explained response uh so my next question I think is going to be somehow more uh for Alex so um since the test optional policy has been adopted uh The renslar Institute has then been a change in the number of applications or the profile of admitted students so uh oh can you hear me yes we can hear you I think I my uh screen is just Frozen Okay um so we implemented the test optional policy uh during the pandemic when we started to see uh applications uh decline um and we've seen a bounce in the number of applications that have been coming in since we uh implemented the test optional policy um whether that increase will continue I don't know but I think overall uh the policy has been uh a positive uh because we're trying to Break Down The Walls uh that are preventing quality students from applying to our school and we want the best students available uh regardless of where they're from so in having this test optional policy uh they don't have to spend the money on the Gres or on the gmats and so we're breaking down another wall uh and another barrier for them to apply and you know I I want to thank you for hosting this uh because we also want to expand our reach not just from you know the uh China and India uh super countries where a lot of uh graduate recruiters go but to uh Eurasia Middle East uh and other countries because we have a great strong program that I think would be uh very appealing to students over there okay sounds awesome uh Carol I actually also would like to ask you something maybe also not uh related to the question uh so about the change in the number of applications have you seen an increase since the uh since the pandemic have you seen that there are more students that are super interested to specifically apply to uh to Northwestern uh again yes like Alex said we had a positive change and uh we're having more interest but I think uh since the World Cup that happened in Qatar we hosted the World Cup people started recognizing Qatar so um the World Cup had a big effect and um and many countries uh specifically the Asian countries they uh started visit visiting us in person not only just uh contacting us virtually they they are flying to Qatar to see this place and they are discovering um the Education City so yes we had an increase in numbers uh not because of the test optional definitely not I can say that uh it is I mean the country be is attractive and many people uh discovered it now I think that's awesome uh and they have you know the chance also to get another culture and you know this cultural exchange so I think for students that's also important and especially for those who are in Central Asia is not that far for their uh from their home so I think they they also use this opportunity just to uh just to not be that that far um okay so I think we are um we are done with the questions that I have prepared for you but we have one from one of the students that have watched Us online so we will allow now time to answer the questions that we received in the comments uh okay so the first questions uh Carol Qatar has been a popular destination among kazakhstani students one of my students wants to go to a smaller safety University as a gap year because we have 11year system where he has C University requireed 12y year education is that right would he be El ible to start in quat that's cat count Foundation from an University as 12th grade study I think that's a great question yes now uh first of all I want to mention that kazakhstani students numbers grew drastically last year we had a huge number of students applying um I don't know what I mean I think social media and uh they introduced Qatar in kazakistan and their TV station and we had one kazakistan student who studied communication and advertised Qatar so this is one thing now um now regarding 12 years of school it is important for us a student finishing um 11 years we have understood the system of the kazakhstani schools uh yes 11 we know that in kazakistan it's 11 years and we read applications based on that so don't worry about that um we will be eligible if you have a holistic application and you need to compete with other kazakhstani students this is how we will accept you okay so it's not a problem if he didn't finish 12th grade the 12th grade it's okay they kazakistan students finish grade 11 years they don't they don't have grade 12 11 right that's what the person is actually asking if he if he's eligible for for that even though he has only finished the 11year system um curriculum uh and I think it's not only kazakhstani there have been other countries that have this 11year system so uh definitely you shouldn't worry about that guys there are more countries and um that's that's not an issue definitely okay us what we tell the students is show us what you have you finished School show us what we you have because we have the information about uh schools we go back and refer to through embassies to their education systems and we have understood the different countries systems so don't worry and also education USA centers guys many universities they would reach out directly to us and they would ask us about the educational system in a specific count so in case if they would have some misunderstandings or questions they they would need to uh to clarify they can also reach out to your education us adviser so um so yes um that's that's also an option uh okay so I think we are done with the questions also from our audience and also the questions that I have prepared for you I'm so thankful uh for uh for to you Bob that you have attended our session today and our webinar I'm more than sure that this is a great start to all the other sessions that we have planned for September and that gives uh um our our students a better understanding of how the test optional policy work and that they they shouldn't be worried about the fact that if they don't have the U sat act G or GMAT they wouldn't been accepted to an University so there are plenty of Majors plenty of universities that uh that you can uh that you can research and you can apply for and they wouldn't require you to have this uh the the optional test uh so I see here Carol and Alex have specified their contact information so if you guys have more uh questions um and if you need to know more information about those two uh institutions please email them uh we are very thankful that you had time and you allowed time to uh to be with us today thank you so much Carol and Alex for being with me today and um and for for sharing with us this this awesome information um and you guys you have a great uh start of the week actually it's it's the mid of the week so you have a great end of the week already and thank you thank you so much have a wonderful day thank you so much this has been wonderful [Music]