Yale University plans to require standardized test scores for admission from students applying for fall 2025 admission, the first Ivy League school to abandon a test-optional policy widely adopted during the coronavirus pandemic. This is the second school.
Yale University officials said in an announcement Thursday that the move to a test-optional policy may have unwittingly harmed students from low-income families whose test scores may have contributed to their chances. He said that there is a sex.
Yale University requires standardized testing, but its policy is “test-flexible,” allowing students to submit subject-based Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate test scores in lieu of SAT or ACT scores. He said he would allow it.
Yale's decision does not affect students who applied during the current admissions cycle, but it follows a similar decision by Dartmouth College in February. Dartmouth, in Hanover, New Hampshire, fears hundreds of students from low socioeconomic backgrounds with solid SAT scores in the 1,400 range will fall too far below the perfect score of 1,600 after an analysis. It turned out that the applicant had refused to submit the application. In 2022, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology announced it was reinstating testing requirements.
These institutions remain a minority. Many companies have decided to maintain voluntary testing policies as the pandemic subsides.
The number of students taking the SAT decreased from 2.2 million in 2020 to 1.7 million in 2022.
More than 80% of four-year colleges, or at least 1,825 of the nation's bachelor's degree-granting institutions, will not require SAT or ACT scores this fall, according to FairTest, a group that has fought against standardized testing. become.
The anti-testing movement has long argued that standardized tests help foster inequality because many students from wealthy families use tutors and coaches to boost their scores.
Following last year's Supreme Court decision banning race-based admissions, many experts predicted that test-optional policies would become more widespread.
However, recent research has raised questions about whether test-optional policies may actually harm the very students they are meant to help.
Opportunity Insights, a group of economists based at Harvard University, said in January that test scores can help identify low-income students and students from underrepresented groups who can thrive in college. Presented the research results. Higher scores for disadvantaged students may indicate higher potential.
Yale University in New Haven, Conn., said test scores are particularly valuable in evaluating students attending high schools and college preparatory courses with fewer academic resources.
Jeremiah Quinlan, Yale's director of undergraduate admissions, said in a written statement released by the university that Yale has determined that test scores, while imperfect, can predict academic success at the university. Stated.
“Simply put, students with higher scores are also more likely to have a higher GPA at Yale, and test scores are the only predictor of student performance in Yale courses in all the models we built. is the biggest factor,” he said.
If a student does not submit test scores, admissions committees will focus on other elements of the student's file, Quinlan said.
“For students attending well-resourced high schools, alternatives to standardized testing are relatively easy to find. Transcripts are packed with advanced courses, and teachers are encouraged to celebrate students' unique contributions in the classroom. , and there are plenty of opportunities to enrich their list of activities,” he said. That statement. “We found that focusing more on these factors has the effect of favoring the advantaged.”
Yale University recently announced that more than 57,000 students applied for admission this fall, a record number due in part to the school's test-optional policy. The admission rate to Yale University is approximately 4%.
Quinlan said Yale recently admitted 1,000 students who did not submit test scores, but they did relatively well in Yale courses.
