A new policy added to the NIU undergraduate college catalog will require students entering NIU in the fall of 1988 to meet more strict admission requirements.

Institutional Research Director Nick Noe said, “Both ACT scores, high school rank and courses taken are significant predictors in determining how well a student will do in college.”

For the past few years students wishing to be admitted to NIU were required to rank in the upper half of their high school graduating class and have an ACT composite score of at least 17, or rank in the upper two-thirds but below the upper half of the graduating class and have an ACT score of at least 22.

The new policy, effective in the fall of 1988, states that students planning to enter NIU must have successfully completed certain high school courses in addition to the other requirements.

These courses include: three years of English; two years of mathematics, physical or biological sciences and social sciences; and one year of either art, film, foreign language, music or theater.

ecent research released by ACT testing services supports this policy. The core requirements used for its study included four years of English and three years of mathematics, social studies and natural sciences.

A representative from ACT testing services said because content of the test is drawn from the school curriculum, performance on the ACT has “a direct and obvious relationship to the student’s academic development.”

The report states that high school students who took similar core courses performed 3.9 scale points better than students who did not complete these courses.

Their average ACT score for students who took the core courses was 20.8, while students who did not take these courses averaged 16.9.

ACT President Oluf Davidsen said, “The proportion of ACT-tested students who report they have taken a core high school curriculum is on the increase.”

e said last year about 36 percent of the students tested took such courses. In 1987 this figure is 47 percent.

DeKalb High School Counselor Frank Warga said it is important for students to meet certain course requirements in addition to performing well on the ACT. He said, “Most colleges consider both to be important, but students with good performance records in high school generally have better study habits so they tend to do better in college.”

Noe said, “In the 1960s and ’70s high school rank had a slightly higher correlation in determining college success than ACT scores, but since that time it’s been roughly the same.”