In the height of Covid and the years since, more than 1,800 universities in the United States have stopped requiring students to submit standardized test scores, such as the SAT and ACT when applying for college.
Schools have implemented different testing policies, including test required, test-blind (where standardized test scores are eliminated from the school’s admissions process), or test-optional (where students are given the choice of submitting their test scores or not).
This dramatic shift in decades-old policies is accompanied by the growing skepticism over the efficacy and fairness of standardized tests. Many believe that a timed, standardized test is simply not an accurate measure of a student’s academic capabilities. Studies have shown, for instance, that test scores are firmly linked to the race and family income of an applicant.
According to BHSEC college advisor Crystal Sandiford, “Offering test optional admissions is a good equity piece for students at schools that don’t necessarily prepare them for a [standardized] exam.” She adds that by making their admissions test optional, colleges are able to focus on “GPA and other factors that show a student’s critical thinking over the course of four years, versus how well you perform on one particular day.”
When speaking with Year One students about the prospect of standardized test scores becoming mandatory again, Molly Castle, a self-identified “strong test-taker” agreed that “[standardized tests] can definitely be a little bit of a class issue.” They added that their “family is able and willing to spend money on [test prep], but a lot of people aren’t. [Test scores] can definitely represent who has the most money to spend on prep.”
Furthermore, students who don’t consider standardized tests an accurate representation of their academic ability face even more stress at the looming prospect of the mandatory SAT. “I have testing anxiety and severe ADHD,” one student said, “and it’s really hard for me to sit still for hours and hours.” The SAT and ACT offer extra time for those with learning accommodations, but for some students, these extensions tack on hours onto an already long test, making the process more extensive and monotonous.
Sofia Yang, a Year One student, claims that “being able to take a test is a skill on its own. It has little to do with intelligence, but rather your ability to sit still and focus for long periods of time.”
While many share Yang’s opinion, this has not deterred Stuart Schmill, the Dean of Admissions at Massachusetts Institute of Technology from reinstating required ACT and SAT scores in 2022. In an MIT News interview, Schmill claimed that standardized testing is one important and reliable measure of whether a student can keep up with the “grades, coursework and other factors” of one of the top universities in the country. Brown, Dartmouth, and Yale Universities have also reinstated their test mandatory policy beginning the fall of 2025 (Meaning current sophomores will be applying to college under these test-mandatory requirements).
Credit: Brown University
A view becoming increasingly studied is that the SAT and ACT actually increase opportunities for low income and minority students who don’t have access to the advanced courses or extracurriculars that challenging schools look for in prospective students. Standardized test prep is free with Khan Academy and the SAT is offered at every school regardless of its resources, giving high-achieving students an opportunity to demonstrate their abilities in a measure which every high schooler can take part in.
Year One student Molly Castle agreed that “test prep is becoming more and more available and there are a lot of good, cheap, and even free options,” however, a different Year One student claimed that although it is useful, “Khan Academy is for basics. If you need help understanding how to use a comma, for example, Khan Academy is great for that. But the tricky questions specific to your weaknesses that they will throw at you on the SAT, Khan Academy won’t cover,” which is where a paid tutor comes in.
The fear of some admissions officers is that by making standardized testing optional, students who would benefit from colleges viewing their scores will choose to not take it and miss an opportunity to demonstrate their academic potential. Oftentimes grades are simply not enough information to judge whether or not a student will thrive in a certain university. Schmill also adds that requiring test scores actually eliminates stress caused by trying to “game the system” — that is, strategically calculating whether to send test scores to certain schools and not to others.
However, this seems like a feeble justification because of the widely accepted “rule” that if your test scores are “within the middle 50 range of admitted scores, then you want to send it,” says Crystal Sandiford, CTO advisor. “If [your scores] don’t, and the rest of your application is strong, then you can comfortably choose a test optional approach.”
It is important to note that many admissions officers who support mandatory test score submissions at their respective schools often do not necessarily support the test itself—they simply believe in its capacity to predict a student’s ability to match the environment of the school, however rigorous or demanding it may be. Schmill says that ideally, we would “find better, more equitable tools than the SAT/ACT,” but until that day comes, standardized tests are crucial for college admissions.
As Year One student Fotini Klimathianos puts it, “I’m a little bit anti-test because I feel like standardized tests are an inaccurate representation of what I have to offer in an academic environment. At the same time, I know I just kind of have to take the test so I can get into college.”