Wave of prestigious colleges re-requiring SAT and ACT

Testing re-required in many universities

Some prominent universities such as Harvard, Dartmouth and Yale have all decided to reinstate the SAT and or the ACT as requirements for any application to their school for the class of 2029. 

At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, SAT and ACTs, formally a staple of admission into four-year colleges, became optional. According to Forbes in fall 2023, more than 80 percent of 4-year colleges do not require standardized tests. However, this significant change may be reversed, as many prestigious colleges and universities throughout the United States have started to revoke their test-optional policies. 

After overviewing SAT and ACT data, many colleges found that the tests were racially discriminatory, unfair towards people of different socioeconomic statuses and an invalid measure of judging a student’s true academic abilities.

Ananda Searcy ('25) offered an additional perspective on the possible equity issues colleges could be missing. 

“I get the point of trying to identify your high-performance students[...] but I feel like most of these colleges have a predominantly white community. And some of the students who aren't white don't have that level of education possibly. So I feel like doing that is slightly unfair,” Searcy said. 

 Many critics, including educators from the two thousand U.S. colleges that are test-optional, pointed to private SAT and ACT tutors as an additional inequity available to students who could afford them, broadening the disparity in test scores with lower income families at a disadvantage. Some educators found that, regardless of a student’s score, the tests do not accurately reflect students' abilities. 

“I think that that flexibility [of the test being optional] really opened the door for some students that may or may not be strong test takers, but can prove success or strong qualities elsewhere,” said Flores.

This was referred to by many in the college admissions community as “the big experiment.” Yet, many of the aforementioned schools have recently announced their reversal of the test-optional policy. The decision was partly influenced by a study conducted by Brown and Dartmouth University, “Standardized Test Scores and Academic Performance at Ivy-Plus Colleges.” The study had three important findings: students with better standardized test scores had better college grades, a student’s GPA in high school does not equate to potential college success and students with similar standardized tests from different backgrounds still had similar college grades. 

Despite the findings of this study, the majority of the colleges throughout the U.S. continue to align their policies with the equity-based argument against standardized tests. 

Regardless of the effects of requiring the ACT and SAT, these tests will continue to impact college-bound students at Samo.

“It's one of those deals where I tell students this is not something that should be taken lightly and because of that, I think it can bring about a lot of stress into a student's life. I tell students at least four to six weeks of some form of test prep. [...] Students need to prioritize their true life responsibilities,” Flores said. “If it's required for a school that is your dream school, they will regret not applying to do it [SAT/ACT]. But if it's not, I think it's one of those stressors that we could do away with everything.”

Though actively studying for the SAT, the AVID Club President Himanshi Machhaal (’25) said that the position to re-require the standardized tests was misguided. 

“Somebody might have bad extracurriculars, but an awesome GPA and an awesome SAT score can help the college determine if they're the right fit for the college. Even though your GPA might be really good, SATs and ACTs can help boost your applications,” Machhaal said. “However it should be optional because some people don't do well due to the time limit provided in standardized tests and some people have test anxieties and a limited amount of time can have a huge impact on their performance on the test.”