Applying to college is more than just good grades and a test score. With DePaul’s test optional policy that allows students to omit submitting a test score, it brings up the question of what it means to be college-ready.

While the state and ACT have different standards of being college-ready, data from DePaul’s test optional pilot program shows that students that do not submit test scores are just as successful in their first year of college.

The average GPA for test-optional applicants is 3.25 while for test submitters it is 3.33, according to admissions data from the 2012 admissions cycle.

“(College readiness) is a pretty nebulous term, and I’m not sure anybody knows exactly what it means,” Jon Boeckenstedt, associate vice president for Enrollment Management, said.

Even Frederick J. Kelly, inventor of the first standardized test in 1914, wrote in opposition of its use after realizing that student learning suddenly became the teacher’s responsibility, in charge of making, grading and teaching to the tests. Almost a 100 years later, many universities still heavily rely on ACT and SAT standardized scores.

With standardized testing’s centennial anniversary, college applicants across America continue to hope that their scores on a single test will persuade college admissions offices to admit them.

Jen Wirth, a junior and health care administration major, said being ready for college meant having good grades, a good ACT score and essays showing how students want to better themselves in college and get a good job.

Sophomore biology major Shema Shabalang defined college readiness as “(having) a history of dedication to school; good academic standing, obviously; and more of an emphasis on extracurricular activities; to show (the students) can go beyond school.”

“(College readiness) has a lot to do with whether or not you’re capable of writing well, whether or not you’re capable of thinking, whether you have some quantitative skills that can get you through college level courses … I don’t think it can be measured by a single test for all students,” Boeckenstedt said.

For many students, their ACT didn’t reflect much of their potential at all.

Shabalang said she relied on her grades and essays to carry her college application through admission offices.

“My grades did not correlate at all with my ACT score,” Shabahang said. “The ACT isn’t a measure of intellect. It’s how well you can take a test.”

Freshman Kevin Sheppard also said the ACT simply indicated how well students could pass tests.

“I did not like (the ACT). I didn’t get as good a score on it compared with my grades,” Sheppard said.

In 2012, the freshman class at DePaul became the first to choose whether or not to submit their standardized test scores with their application. Supplemental essay questions were used as a replacement for the test scores.

“Test optional says that for some students, standardized tests were not a good measure of their ability to do college level work,” Boeckenstedt said.

“And if you place too much weight on the importance of the test in the admissions process, you’re going to miss a lot of really well qualified students who have every chance and are quite capable of succeeding in college,” Boeckenstedt said.

Boeckenstedt cited research indicating that standardized test scores had little power predicting how well a student would perform at DePaul.

“For almost every student, if you have a transcript and it’s from a high school we know and the grades are good and that student is on par with how other students from that high school have done and how they’ve performed, we can predict with pretty good certainty how (a student is) going to do at DePaul,” Boeckenstedt said.

From the 2012 admissions cycle, 10 percent of applicants at the music school applied without a test score, which was the most of any college. CDM saw the lowest number with only 2 percent going test-optional.

Boeckenstedt said standardized tests had a detrimental effect on many students by making them think they couldn’t succeed at a university simply based on their test scores. DePaul’s admissions offices, Boeckenstedt said, try to understand who the applicants are and what they do.

“We may be able to give (these students) an opportunity (they) didn’t think (they) had,” Boeckenstedt said.

For many DePaul students, this meant taking advantage of the essay portion of their application.

The essays gave Jen Wirth a chance to “tell (her) story.”

Freshman finance major Shane Sackett said the supplemental essays were the most important part of his application.

“(The essays) were more creative,” Sackett said. “More interesting as far as creative writing goes.”

So what’s the secret to being ready for college?

According to Boeckenstedt, there is no secret formula. No one can judge with certainty whether a student is ready or not for college.

“We know for a fact there are students below the ACT threshold who go to college and succeed and thrive, and we know there are students above that ACT threshold and who go to college and don’t do well at all,” Boeckenstedt said.

“There’s so much more to succeeding in college, and in life, than picking the right answer on a test.”