Some of you may wonder about whether you need to take the College Board SAT Subject Tests. Most, if not all of you, are familiar with the SAT and ACT.  Colleges and universities who require the submission of standardized tests as part of the application usually require the SAT or ACT. But what about the SAT Subject Tests?  These are one hour tests that are offered in 20 different subjects, including U.S. History, Math Level I, French, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, and a host of other subjects.  What do you need to know about these tests and do you need to prepare for these tests?

First of all, only about 30 schools in the country even require SAT Subject Tests.  This is a group of highly selective colleges that include such names as Harvard andYale.  You need to research prospective schools to see if they even require these tests. You certainly can get much of this information through researching college and university websites, but there is no substitute for actually contacting the admissions department and directly asking an admissions officer. Those schools who do require the SAT Subject Tests will generally require two different Subject Tests, with a few requiring three tests.

A college is a business. It’s a business whose purpose is to provide a quality education to a diverse and vibrant student community, but a business nonetheless. At the end of the day, the books need to balance. For this reason, schools employ what they call “strategic enrollment strategy” in order to meet their two main goals: provide valuable service and remain financially viable.

In some ways, these two goals seem to be in direct opposition to each other. How can a college keep its head above the water if it’s bleeding money to provide every student’s full financial need? And on the other hand, how can a school maintain student diversity if it excludes students who require financial aid or admits such students but fails to provide the necessary aid?

This is where strategic enrollment strategy comes in, and a big part of it involves “need-blind” policies. “Need-blind” means that the school takes no account of students’ financial situations when making admittance decisions. A good many schools advertise a need-blind policy in order to attract students from underrepresented groups such as low-income families, minorities, and first-generation college goers.

This seems to go over well with donors and students alike.  According to an article run online by Inside Higher Ed, Hamilton College raised $40 million to fund their need-blind policy in half the time projected, largely through alumni support. Vassar, who recently re-adopted a need blind policy, saw applications from minorities double; the school has also increased its offers of admission and improved its enrollment numbers.

On the other end of the spectrum are schools like Macalester College, who have dropped their need-blind policies in order to ensure full access to the lower income students they do admit. The idea is that need-blind doesn’t necessarily give a boost to low-income students if A) they still get passed over during the selection process or B) the school doesn’t have enough money to cover their financial need.