Bowdoin to Alter Entry Policy; Will Request a Writing Sample

Bowdoin College, where SAT scores have been optional for four years, will request that all future applicants submit a non-graded essay written under exam conditions as part of their application, Richard Moll, director of admissions at Bowdoin, said yesterday.

The college will also require that one recommendation be written by the student's English teacher. "Many secondary schools have compromised training in basic linguistic skills by offering non-essential electives," Moll said. "We need to find out if a student is able to express him or herself."

The "predictive value" of SAT and Achievement Test scores have proven a great disappointment, he added. "Fifty-eight per cent of last year's freshman did not submit their scores," he said, "and on the whole, those students did slightly better than their classmates in the first year's work."

Last summer, Bowdoin coordinated a joint effort by several colleges including Harvard to reinstitute the writing sample as part of tests, designed by the College Entrance Examination Board. The proposal was rejected as financially not feasible.

L. Fred Jewett '57, dean of admissions and financial aid, said yesterday that Harvard had signed a petition in support of Moll but had no plans to follow up on the proposal. "We just don't feel as strongly about this issue as he does," Jewett said.

Harvard will ask for another short essay on its application this year, Jewett added, but there are no plans to request that one be written in a test situation.

"Evidence of a student's writing ability is extremely helpful to the admissions committee, but it's just not practical to have a required, supervised essay," he said.

"We still find that SATs provide a pretty good measurement of what an applicant knows and how he handles that knowledge," he said.

Jewett also said that although the scores are not precise, the committee felt that "it would be crazy to try and do without them."

Alberta Arthurs, dean of admissions and financial aid at Radcliffe, echoed Jewett's statement. There have been no plans to change the Radcliffe application, she said; SAT scores are still considered an important piece of information.

"However, the total folder is what counts," Arthur said, "and there are usually other things in it that prove of greater significance than the scores." Often applicants voluntarily send in samples of their work, she added.