The SAT is a nerve-wracking experience many are familiar with, the scene of a hundred or so students crammed into a high school gym waiting to begin the test. It is also an experience that many thought would be a thing of the past. During the COVID-19 pandemic, colleges across the nation no longer required standardized tests for applicants, and these policies persisted after pandemic-era restrictions eased.
Ivy League institutions like Brown, Dartmouth, Harvard and Yale are making the move to require the SAT again for the first time since the start of the pandemic. Many people think that this will be the start of a pattern of more schools making the move toward requiring standardized tests. However, some schools have stood firm on their test-optional status. Columbia has announced that it will be permanently test blind, and the University of California (UC) system and California State Universities (CSUs) will continue to be test blind indefinitely as well.
“It seems like [the Ivy League schools] are all moving in the same direction [of requiring tests],” College and Career Center Advisor Teresa Ignaitis said.
Some believe that this pattern of requiring test scores may extend outside of just Ivy League institutions, but at the moment, many schools still have yet to make announcements. According to the Washington Post, Princeton, Stanford, Cornell, Duke and the University of Pennsylvania have announced that they will keep test-optional policies in place for at least the next few admissions cycles. With this said, the future of the policies at these elite colleges is still uncertain.
“I think these [Ivy League schools] are looked upon as top tier, so I think that over the next few years, there’s definitely going to be a shift to more schools going test required,” junior Rikhil Kokal said.
According to a study commissioned by Dartmouth President Sian Beilock, the SAT and high school grades are the strongest indicators of future success in college. Dartmouth claims that it will look at the SAT as a valuable tool to “identify high-achieving applicants from low and middle-income backgrounds, who are first-generation college-bound, as well as students from urban and rural backgrounds.”
Despite the claims that requiring standardized tests will help diversity and predict students who will succeed academically, the racial and economic disparities that are seen with test scores and patterns in demographics are still alarming. Many see test-required policies as a step back from diversity and inclusion.
“Given my experience with standardized testing throughout my career here, I don’t think that standardized tests are ever an indicator of a student’s true ability,” IB English teacher and AVID Department Chair Jasmine Schimek said.
Economists Ember Smith and Richard Reeves from The Brookings Institute claim that the SAT mirrors racial inequalities and helps maintain systemic biases.
“In general if a student has more educational opportunities they will get higher scores,” Ignaitis said.
Issues with standardized testing in the past have been concerned about inequitable test prep, as many wealthy students are able to pay for expensive test-prep services. However, today there are many free options for students to study with that are more accessible than they were previously, such as Khan Academy and College Board.
“I’ve been using Khan Academy and all of its free resources. It has a wonderful section for how to prepare for the digital SAT,” junior Rikhil Kokal said.
There are also questions about what the content of the SAT measures and if its metrics are even applicable to college admissions.
“So many of the questions you can’t understand because the vocabulary of the question is so complex. How can I possibly answer the question if I don’t even understand the words in the question?” Schimek said. “Then is [the SAT] really showing my true intelligence, who is it rewarding, who is it keeping down?”
In the modern college admissions process, numerous pressures are being placed on students from all sides. With elite colleges requiring high grades and strong extracurriculars, having high standardized test scores is adding another level of pressure.
“We already know that kids are more stressed now than they’ve ever been for a multitude of reasons. I don’t think adding another thing to their plate is necessarily the smartest thing to do. […] I tend to see students who worry about getting into an Ivy League school tend to be the ones with a little more anxiety, a little more stress around achievement,” Schimek said.
In a time where colleges claim to look at students holistically, standardized tests can be a discouraging and seemingly concrete number placed on students that determines their admissions. But out of all this, one undeniable truth is that policies and attitudes surrounding standardized testing will change in the upcoming years, and these unpredictable policies will have wide-ranging effects on seniors applying to college.
“I think that we have to look beyond grades and test scores because a student who maybe didn’t do great on the SAT still has a really bright future and can bring a lot to your university. And they deserve as much a chance as somebody else,” Schimek said.