Hillsdale College Seniors Score in 99th – 100th Percentile Nationally on Proficiency Profile Standardized Test for the 2nd Year in a Row
Test is akin to college-level SAT exam and evaluates skills in critical thinking, mathematics, science
Hillsdale, Mich. — Hillsdale College today announced that a sample of 50 seniors in the class of 2017 who took the Educational Testing Service (ETS) Proficiency Profile standardized test scored in the 99th – 100th percentile nationally. Their scores were compared to 132,422 college seniors at 294 institutions of higher education nationwide, testing from July 2010 through June 2015. The Hillsdale seniors’ average score of 482.4 of 500 points was 35 points higher than the national average and represents an increase of two points compared to Hillsdale’s results from last year.
“Our curriculum is arranged according to principles much older than testing of this type, which makes it in a sense curious that we should excel on this test,” said Larry P. Arnn, Hillsdale College president. “In another sense, however, it is not curious: When intelligent and inspired students and faculty work hard together, marvels unfold.”
“Once again Hillsdale students have proven the effectiveness of a classical liberal arts education,” added Mark Maier, assistant to the provost. “By providing a benchmark to measure our students’ outcomes against the outcomes of their peers at other institutions, the Proficiency Profile allows us to have an accurate gauge of the success of the core curriculum.”
The Proficiency Profile is akin to a college-level SAT. By testing students in the areas of critical thinking, reading, writing, mathematics, humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences, the Proficiency Profile helps the College assess its educational initiatives and student performance.
“The Proficiency Profile is a recent addition to our General Education Assessment, and supplies a useful element of external benchmarking, given the large number of participants from a wide variety of institutions,” said George Allen, director of institutional research.
ETS is one of the most widely-recognized and reputable bodies in the country for post-graduate testing, and are the creators of the popular GRE test used by many graduate programs.
The Hillsdale students who took the test had an average GPA of 3.47, just slightly higher than the average GPA of the senior class as a whole, and represented a broad cross section of majors.