After nearly four years of required entrance exams for communication majors, the department of communication is temporarily dropping the test beginning in January 2010.
"In general, evidence suggests that (the current system) is a transparent and equitable admission process," said Gary Shulman, chair of the communication department, via email. "However, in the interest of continuously improving the system, the department wants to examine whether the benefits of the pre-major exam component justify its costs."
As a result, the pre-major exam will be suspended to determine how important it may be to the admission process.
"The department will experiment by temporarily suspending the pre-major exam and assessing the impact that has on the admission process," Shulman said. "Students planning to apply to the major in January 2010 or during the 2010-11 academic year will not be required to take the exam."
According to Shulman, potential students are currently required to complete a number of pre-major requirements - including an entrance examination - prior to being admitted into the major.
"Students must earn at least 30 semester hours, complete each of the three pre-major courses and successfully complete the pre-major examination before being admitted to the major," Shulman said by email. "Entrance examinations will be administered in September and January (and) the exam can be taken only once."
Shulman said each student is then ranked in comparison with the other applicants based on their performance in communication classes and on the entrance exam.
"Each student's overall grade point average, grade point average in the pre-major courses and score on the pre-major exam are calculated to create a combined score which is then ranked in comparison to the other students in that semester's applicant pool," Shulman said.
Much like the current system, the new admissions process will still include a calculation of both overall GPA and pre-major course GPA that will then be ranked and compared with other students in a semester's applicant pool, Shulman said.
Sophomore Cameron Innis, a pre-communications major who will no longer be required to take the entrance exam, believes that ultimately lifting the test will have no effect on the fairness of the admissions process.
"I don't think taking the test out of the process will make admission unfair," Innis said. "Even without the test I will be compared to other students based on my credentials."
However, Innis does believe removing the test may be beneficial to some students.
"I think (removing the test) might actually help students who aren't very good test takers get into the school based on their GPA."
