The SAT and ACT are making a small but important comeback after the tests were widely removed as a requirement for college applications during the pandemic.
Most schools opted to test, meaning students could submit their scores if they wanted, but not doing so would not count against them. The University of California will not consider test results at all.
Only a handful of schools have resurrected the testing requirement, but among them are heavyweights in the world of higher education: MIT, Dartmouth and Georgetown. More recently, the University of Texas at Austin and Brown University joined the list and the University of North Carolina is considering it. Yale will also require standardized test scores, but tests such as Advanced Placement can be used in place of college entrance exams.
Other competitive schools are likely to join the group, along with schools that are not as selective. The University of Tennessee, which accepts 68% of applicants, decided a year and a half ago to bring back the tests.
The tests were criticized long before the pandemic for giving an unfair boost to wealthier students who could afford tutoring. And it's true that scores are closely correlated with family income. But the pause in testing gave universities a chance to study the issue more closely. They found that SAT scores were extremely effective in predicting whether students would be successful in college.
No one should be surprised. The University of California convened a panel several years ago to study the issue in depth and came to the same conclusion. Standardized tests were more equitable than grades, the panel said, because grade inflation is more widespread in affluent schools. However, the UC refuses to consider the exam results, after bowing to pressure from critics. We hope that the trend toward reinstating testing in admissions will cause UC leaders to reconsider this position.
Dartmouth, Yale, and Brown found that making tests optional was actually counterproductive. Their applicant pools became less diverse, because low-income students and students of color were less likely to apply even if they had good test scores, thinking they had not done well enough.
Unfortunately, the entire debate has ignored the most important factors that perpetuate the uneven playing field in college admissions. Yes, wealthy students can get SAT tutoring and that helps, just a little. The most rigorous study on the topic found that tutoring could increase scores by about 20 points.
Meanwhile, some aspects of college admissions tilt the field in favor of wealthier students more than test scores. For example, teachers in more affluent schools have more time to write letters of recommendation for college applications than teachers in low-income schools.
Athletes continue to have an advantage in acceptance, and not just in commonly played games like football and soccer that most students have access to in high school. Golf, equestrian, fencing, gymnastics and crew are among the sports that require families to pay for their children to participate, and those athletes also receive preferential treatment in college admissions.
Essays can be mentored, heavily edited, or even written by university consultants for a fee. A 2021 study at Stanford University found that the quality of essay content was closely correlated with family income among University of California applicants. However, UC kept the essays and got rid of the tests.
There is nothing inherently wrong with the SAT or ACT. It all depends on how they are used. They can act as a reality check: a student who didn't get great grades may show a lot of potential in test scores, and vice versa. And, as UC did before scrapping the tests, colleges should consider scores in context—for example, is this the best score at a high school that typically has low scores? A score might reflect the education at that school, not the student's aptitude for college work.
These latest changes also point to a larger problem in selective college admissions: Each school apparently wants different things. Some want high SAT scores, some care more about AP exams, and some don't want standardized test scores. Some improve GPAs depending on how difficult the courses are, some do not, and some only in some cases.
Of course, schools have the right to seek out students who best fit their institution. But the lack of transparency and consistency has given rise to an industry of expensive college admissions consultants that generates nearly $3 billion a year.
Talk about tilting the playing field.
