Counselors--especially in Oregon, but anywhere--we'd like your take on this and what it means for Oregon State University and testing going forward. On March 25, 2020 all the public universities in Oregon announced that they were permanently test optional for undergraduate admission . This was something that was several months in the making, and almost certainly would have gone forward anyway; but the decision was made easier in light of COVID-19. It was meaningful for me, too, as it happened on the birthday of Norman Borlaug , fellow Iowan and the person once called "the greatest human being who ever lived." He became the face of test optional when I learned he failed his admission exam to the University of Minnesota. I want to share a few glimpses into the application patterns for our first year students at Oregon State since then. The view below shows all applicants . At top left, you can see counts of students who applied without tests (in orange) for 2021, 2022, a
As we emerge from the pandemic (at least it seems we have; others are not so sure), patterns of enrollment in the state of Oregon are emerging. And, in general, they seem to be something we residents of the state might want to address collectively. The causes are complex, of course, and exacerbated by COVID; on the other hand, they have been a long time in coming, akin to Senge's boiling frog analogy. See for yourself. The view below includes odd-numbered years of enrollment in Oregon, via three views: Four-year publics; community colleges (the largest individually and the smallest rolled into one); and the state's largest four-year private colleges and universities. You can use the filters to choose student level (graduate or undergraduate); status (full- or part-time), gender, and ethnicity, in any combination. You can see both raw numbers and percentage change since 2011. Before you do that, however, you might want to spend some time with a few resources: The SHEF site