During Covid-19, many colleges and universities, including some of the most prestigious in America, changed their policies with respect to standardized college admissions testing. As Covid spread across the country, SAT and ACT testing schedules were repeatedly postponed or canceled, leaving many students unable to take the exams. As a result, the SAT and ACT became an optional part of the admissions process.
Many articles were written and opinions were voiced praising the relaxing of the requirement. They pointed to inequities in test results due to differences in students’ socio-economics statuses and opportunities. As Covid became more manageable and life returned to its new normal, most institutions of higher learning have not reinstated the standardized testing requirement. After all, there is a clear correlation between parental income and success on standardized tests.
But, an interesting trend seems to be gaining steam. In 2022, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), reinstated its requirement for standardized testing (SAT or ACT) in its admissions process. According to Dean of Admissions Stuart Schmill, “Our research has shown that, in most cases, we cannot reliably predict students will do well at MIT unless we consider standardized test results alongside grades, coursework, and other factors. These findings are statistically robust and stable over time, and hold when you control for socioeconomic factors and look across demographic groups. And the math component of the testing turns out to be most important.”
And in January of 2024, Dartmouth College followed suit. According to Dartmouth’s research, “Our overall conclusion is that the use of SAT and ACT scores is an essential method by which Admissions can identify applicants who will succeed at Dartmouth. Importantly, these test scores better position Admissions to identify high-achieving less-advantaged applicants and high-achieving applicants who attend high schools for which Dartmouth has less information to interpret the transcripts. The data suggest that, under an SAT/ACT optional (hereafter “test-optional”) policy, many high-achieving less-advantaged applicants choose not to submit scores even when doing so would allow Admissions to identify them as students likely to succeed at Dartmouth and in turn benefit their application.“
Then in February of 2024, Yale University announced that it too would reinstate a standardized test requirement for admission. The New York Times wrote, “While it will require standardized tests, Yale said its policy would be “test flexible,” permitting students to submit scores from subject-based Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate tests in lieu of SAT or ACT scores.” Further, Yale’s Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Jeremiah Quinlan, stated that, “...students with higher scores have been more likely to have higher Yale G.P.A.s, and test scores are the single greatest predictor of a student’s performance in Yale courses in every model we have constructed.”
John Friedman of Brown University also conducted research on this topic. In his own words, “…standardized test scores do substantially better than high school GPA at predicting, for instance, a student’s grade point average or the chances that a student will academically struggle once they’re in school.
That’s not only true just in the raw data; it’s true when you adjust for differences by family income, background, race, gender and what high schools students have gone to.”
So what is a student to do? Some colleges require the SAT or ACT and others do not. It is important to carefully review the requirements of the colleges and universities to which your student plans to apply. That said, given the information noted above, we believe it is in the student’s best interest go ahead and take either the SAT or the ACT. If your student scores well, it appears that it will benefit them to include their standardized test scores with their admissions application. And, also as noted above, if your student is from an socioeconomically less advantaged or underrepresented group, even if their test scores are somewhat lower than the average for their targets schools, it still may behoove them to submit their scores. Our own Vinay Bhawnani, founder of Loudoun Test Prep, weighs in on the topic here.
As for us, if you and your student decide to take either of the exams, we would love to help them achieve their optimal standardized testing performance. Please consider our Small Group SAT/ACT Test Prep or our Individual SAT/ACT Test Prep options.
