Executive Summary

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted college testing requirements, leading some colleges to change their admissions policies indefinitely, most notably Dartmouth College, the University of California system, and more. With more colleges reinstating their requirements in recent application cycles, this brief examines the motives behind these changes, addressing the future of college admissions.

History

Standardized testing undeniably plays a significant role in public schools throughout our country, specifically in college admissions. Tests such as the SAT and ACT have become widely used for years to examine student’s academic ability for collegiate programs, leading to conflicting opinions about the efficacy of standardized testing on predicting student achievement. Rising high school seniors who prepare to apply to colleges feel pressured to score perfect: 1600 on the SAT or 36 on the ACT. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, most students who planned to take these tests in the coming summer or fall, no longer have a score to report, let alone their best score, due to the closure of testing centers. 

In order to combat this issue, colleges became test-optional. Students no longer had to fulfill a requirement to submit test scores if they did not perform to a favorable outcome or did not take the SAT or ACT. On the other hand, those with satisfactory scores still have the option to submit their scores. This opened a new conversation: How accurate were standardized tests in gauging the ability and strength of a student’s academics, as now not everyone was submitting them?

Current Stances

The SAT and ACT have long been criticized for their limited accessibility to those who could afford to pay practice exams, tutors, and classes. While some students have the ability to pay thousands of dollars a summer to perfect their scores, others spend their summers working a job or tending to their siblings to support their families. As standardized testing results are heavily influenced by family income,  scores ultimately show the disparities between racially and economically disadvantaged students,  favoring those who have academic privileges. Today, most colleges remain test-optional. Some have turned to test requirements, while other colleges have become test-blind, meaning they would not consider test scores. At the University of California, the  admissions process  has turned to test-blind admissions, which does not take standardized testing into account. This upcoming admissions cycle, however, may see a rise in test requirements. 

Post-COVID-19 Impact

During COVID-19, standardized testing—and longstanding debates over their efficacy in predicting student performance and their overall role in the college admissions process—came to an abrupt halt as schools opted for test-optional out of necessity. Four years later, schools now find themselves reevaluating their testing policies; with multitudes making the decision permanent and others reversing it; even entire state university systems and legislatures voting to do away with test requirements. But the mainstreaming of what had been an uncommon policy pre-pandemic had major repercussions for the culture and conversations surrounding standardized testing in education; mainly because they also mainstreamed those aforementioned longstanding debates.

‍Stakeholders

‍Scholars and students alike had long objected to the likes of the ACT and SAT before the COVID-era test-optional changes were introduced. A CNN article on the subject described how the SAT has “been denounced as part of the high barrier to entry into the so-called American meritocracy,” as well as for its origins as a racist attempt by creator Carl Brigham in the 1920s as a way to measure the intelligence of students amidst what he believed to be an onslaught on the American mind by immigrants.The essential argument that an individual's economic status primarily affects test scores, due to lower-resourced students not having access to the different prep courses and repeated attempts that higher-income classmates might—thereby reducing the equity of the college admissions process at large—instigated the choice by about eighty percent of all American institutions of higher education to remain test optional (at this time of writing). Janet Godwin, CEO of the ACT Company, stated, “I’m not surprised by the test-optional movement. It’s the new normal. It’s here to stay.”There are several major opposing arguments to the continuation of test-optional policies.

First, understanding the college admissions process to be a holistic one that does not solely rely on standardized test scores when evaluating a student. Second, some studies—including an extensive Harvard-affiliated study  which drove multiple other Ivy Leagues and equally high-ranking schools to officially reinstate their testing requirements in the weeks following its publication—have proven these scores to be better predictors of future college performance than high school transcripts. This is mostly due to the enormous variations within individual schools’ grading policies and academic standards. Dartmouth noted in its statement that oftentimes test scores would have benefited a student with a lower GPA, while UT Austin pointed out the opposite end of the spectrum; that amidst a large pool of 4.0 GPAs that might otherwise make a candidate indistinguishable, test scores are a “proven differentiator”. The third argument, tackling the diversity issue within the testing context, is that colleges may pursue increased economic diversity in their student body regardless of whether their application requires an ACT or SAT score. Finally, the issue of lack of student accessibility to standardized testing due to  COVID-19 is no longer a consideration, and thus a decision made as an “emergency response” should no longer apply.

Current State of Standardized Testing

Although some schools had shifted towards test optional during COVID-19 and have maintained this for a period of time after COVID-19, many have switched back to mandatory standardized testing in recent years. One prominent example of this shift that has solidified the change presents itself at the California Institute of Technology, one of the only institutions to go fully test-blind during the pandemic, who brought back testing requirements for students enrolling in the university in the fall of 2025. Institutions’ thoughts that standardized test scores predict students' grades in college provides a  significant justification to these types of decisions.. Professor and Chair of Economics John Friedman at Brown University backs the claim that students' GPAs in college tend to correlate with their standardized test scores; as a result, numerous institutions throughout the country mandate that these scores be re-included in their evaluation of students' profiles, in order to ensure that institutions provide the most accurate analysis of the applicants throughout the country.

Additionally, colleges argue that they had initially created the optional test rule due to COVID-19. Four years have passed since then, and the prevalence of COVID-19 has decreased significantly, providing a justification in bringing back a major piece of their evaluation of potential candidates to represent their school. The probable ability to differentiate students throughout the country from one another creates a major proponent of schools shifting back to standardized testing,which potentially provides a clear metric by which colleges can analyze students' profiles and is standard throughout every applicant within the applying class.

Additionally, schools such as Dartmouth College have clarified that standardized testing does not give advantages to students who come from schools with more opportunities. They explain that students' SAT scores are compared with others within their school, and if there is a clear differentiation between them and the rest of their school, the college understands that this student excels given their circumstances. As a result, they encourage students to prepare and study for this exam to show colleges their proficiency on key topics and differentiate themselves from their peers. 

Acknowledgment

The Institute for Youth in Policy wishes to acknowledge Eli Solomon, Anagha Nagesh, Nolan Ezzet and other contributors for developing and maintaining the Policy Department within the Institute.

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References

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2. “Caltech Restores Standardized Test Requirement for Undergraduate Admission.” 2024. Caltech. https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/caltech-restores-standardized-test-requirement-for-undergraduate-admission.
3. Collyns, Charles, Josephine Wolff, Nora Gordon, David Deming, Sarah Reber, Susan Dynarski, and Katherine Michelmore. 2024. “Standardized Testing and College Admissions.” Econofact. https://econofact.org/standardized-testing-and-college-admissions.
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7. Jaschik, Scott. 2022. “Will test optional become the new normal in admissions?” Inside Higher Ed. https://www.insidehighered.com/admissions/article/2022/01/24/will-test-optional-become-new-normal-admissions.
8. Johnson Hess, Abigail. 2019. “Rich students get better SAT scores—here's why.” CNBC. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/03/rich-students-get-better-sat-scores-heres-why.html.
9. Kim, Evelyn, and Ana Bury. 2024. “Standardized Testing Fuels Inequality and Insecurity | The Choate News.” The Choate News. https://thechoatenews.choate.edu/2024/01/22/standardized-testing-fuels-inequality-and-insecurity/.
10. “List of Colleges Dropping & Reinstating ACT/SAT Requirements.” 2024. Horizon Education. https://horizoneducation.com/blog/colleges-dropping-reinstating-act-sat-requirements.
11. Natanson, Hannah, and Susan Svrluga. 2024. “Return of some SAT requirements scramble college admissions again.” The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2024/03/18/sat-test-policies-confuse-students/.
12. Rothenberg, Eva. 2024. “Should the SAT still matter after all these years? Why some colleges are bringing it back.” CNN. https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2024/04/21/business/sat-college-requirement-2024-test.
13. UC Office of the President. 2020. “Board of Regents unanimously approved changes to standardized testing requirement for undergraduates | University of California.” University of California. https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/press-room/university-california-board-regents-unanimously-approved-changes-standardized-testing.
14. “Update On Dartmouth's Standardized Testing Policy.” 2024. Dartmouth Admissions. https://admissions.dartmouth.edu/apply/testing-policy.

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