On February 5th Dartmouth announced that it will be re-instating the SAT/ACT requirement for domestic applicants. Less than 3 weeks later Yale followed suit with a rather confusing "test flexible" policy. These moves surprised few and had been telegraphed well in advance. Yale even has a miniseries of podcasts cued up detailing the rationale behind the move.
Both schools cite internal studies that showed that the test optional policy was discouraging economically disadvantaged students from submitting scores that would have potentially helped them gain admission, even if the scores were lower than 25th to 75th percentile scores of accepted students. They were at pains to say that all scores are considered in the context of the student's situation and hence a 1350 from a kid from a rough urban school would be potentially seen as demonstrating even more academic potential than a a student with a 1500 from Greenwich Connecticut. Further, both studies also showed that test scores have been a better predictor of academic success than grades, surprising few who have noted the gross grade inflation now prevalent.
As we've written about previously, "test optional" for the most competitive schools has proven to be a bit of a facade. Well over 60% of accepted students in the most "rejective" 40 American universities with a test optional policy submitted SAT scores. These moves by Dartmouth and Yale simply said the quiet part out loud: universities want to see as much data on applications as possible and test scores are a useful metric, in combination with the many other factors considered.
Other schools have "reaffirmed" their commitment to sticking with test optional moving forward. 78% of successful applicants to University of Michigan submit scores, as do 69% of applicants to Columbia. How could something that a large majority do be considered optional? Great grades, sports, music, and great school activities are also technically "optional", are they not?
Speculation is rife on which schools may soon follow. Harvard (83% submitting) has remained test optional, but what about Brown (81%), Duke (93%), or U Chicago (84%)? While these schools represent an insanely small percentage of students in America, they tend to take the lead and others follow.
Students that do well in school and who would excel at a top university will do well on the SAT, even better with a bit of help.
