The SAT and ACT are Back
by Justin B.
From grade inflation in high schools, to personal statements authored by AI to 50% of applicants not reporting SAT/ACT scores in their application, it’s become harder and harder for college admissions officers to answer the most fundamental question about each applicant: can they do the work?
Even before the pandemic, educators, admissions professionals, parents and students had concerns about the role and importance of testing, including that standardized test scores are more reflective of a student’s socioeconomic standing rather than their college readiness. So when the pandemic came and testing centers across the country shut down, the opportunity to eliminate the SAT/ACT from the admissions process was welcomed by many as an impromptu “case study” to find out just how important (or not) testing is in evaluating and selecting college applicants.
And what we’ve learned since then, according to recent research conducted by faculty at Harvard and Brown is that “SAT, ACT scores [are] more predictive of academic success at Ivy Plus schools than high school grades.” Yes, testing does still matter in admissions, perhaps even more so than some thought, and colleges are not waiting on the findings of longitudinal studies evaluating the graduation rates & grade point averages of students who were admitted without reporting a SAT/ACT score to revert back to their pre-pandemic policies.
Earlier this spring, Brown, CalTech, Dartmouth, Georgetown, Harvard, MIT, Purdue, UT Austin, and Yale all announced a return to requiring test scores this fall. And just last week: ”Stanford reinstates ACT/SAT requirements for university admissions process. The “copycat effect” amongst colleges is very real and additional schools are likely to follow in reinstituting testing requirements.
So what do these changes in the testing landscape mean for upcoming college applicants? First, an important exception to the return to testing movement is the University of California, who remains committed to a test-blind policy for the foreseeable future, including for the 2024-25 application cycle. As noted on their admissions website: “UC eliminated its standardized test requirement in 2020. UC no longer considers SAT or ACT test scores when making admissions decisions or awarding scholarships. Test scores submitted as part of the application may be used as an alternate method of fulfilling minimum requirements for eligibility or for course placement after matriculation at UC.”
For colleges who are remaining test-optional for fall 2024: students should still strive to earn a top score that will validate your GPA and further strengthen your application. While colleges have not published data themselves to support this, anecdotal reports from admissions counselors, including several that I spoke to at last month’s annual Independent Educational Consultants Association Conference, indicate higher acceptance rates for students that chose to submit scores to test-optional institutions compared to those who did not.
In navigating this evolving new world of testing, the best thing students can do is carefully review the unique requirements of each college they’re applying to and turn to their IvyBoost counselor for any needed assistance in translating a college’s policy into actionable understandings for your own application process.
