Goucher College, a liberal arts university located near Baltimore, is experimenting with a new admissions tactic. Rather than requiring applicants to send high school transcripts and SAT or ACT scores, they are only asking for “two pieces of work.”

One of which is a graded writing assignment from high school, the other being a two-minute-long video. The university hopes that this will open opportunities for students who were unable to express their true potential through standardized testing and academic competition.

This will really open doors for those with dyslexia and ones who are simply not competitive by nature. Something the current education system seems to neglect is the fact that people learn differently. Whether they are visual, auditory, or kinesthetic learners, we tend to only cater to one learning style at a time.

This new process of admissions is a step in the right direction towards personalizing the education system. This provides a face to face interaction between the applicant and counselor which is much more like real world job interviews. If this new form of admissions ends up admitting equally or more capable students, then this could really change the way universities admit applicants nationwide. However, this tactic is not suitable for all universities as it benefits the arts the most (communication majors for example). Sciences and mathematics tend to require a more standardized precision.

In the past, students have complained that they were dealt an unfair hand compared to those who attended easier high schools and those who made it into the top 10 percent of their class because fewer people attended their school. Each high school has its own difficulty level, it may be more difficult to make the top 20 percent in a certain school than it would be to make the top 10 percent at a different school.

The top 10 percent law in Texas creates a competitive environment amongst students and sometimes even grants admittance to the less qualified student, decreasing the odds for more eligible students. Allowing students to truly express themselves and what all they are capable of in the form of schoolwork and a video makes the admissions process more personable. After all, the SAT and ACT only test how good students are at taking those tests. They are not accurate representations of one’s intelligence.