When the COVID-19 pandemic occurred, it was a difficult time for students, especially seniors who were applying to college. Standardized test-taking became difficult due to remote test-taking complications and an overall surge in levels of stress. In an attempt to help combat this, most colleges and universities decided to temporarily remove their standardized test requirements and to instead look at each student’s overall application more holistically.
After the pandemic had ended, though, many schools did not reinstate their testing requirements–not until recently. Starting last year, universities have begun requiring that students report their test scores. The number of universities that have taken this action is seemingly low, being just 10 top schools according to The Princeton Review; however, this does not mean the impact is minimal. The colleges that have returned to requiring standardized tests include the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Georgetown University, Yale University, Dartmouth College and Brown University, to name a few. These institutions are some of the most influential schools in the country; they impact what other colleges and universities do; according to Robert J. Sternberg, a professor of Psychology and Education at Oklahoma State University, they can make more schools think of reverting to a test-requiring admissions process.
It may seem as though colleges going test-optional was a new phenomenon due to the pandemic, but in reality, there has been a movement to reduce or completely get rid of the use of standardized testing in the college admissions processes for decades. In fact, the first college to go test-optional was Bowdoin College, which let students choose whether to submit scores or not in 1969. The number of test-optional schools did not increase drastically until the 2000s. It is a possibility that this increase was influenced by what University of California President Richard Atkinson said. According to an article from DePaul University, Atkinson “recommended that colleges stop using the SAT and switch to tests tied more closely to the high school curriculum.” He based this recommendation on the studies conducted around that time; studies in California found strong correlations that high school grades were indicators of how a student would perform in college.
To respond, the College Board adjusted its SAT tests, removing certain sections such as the word analogies section, whilst also adding the writing section. Although they had changed the test, according to DePaul University, there were colleges that still believed there was a presence of “‘historic problems,’ including perceived biases.” The College Board’s own research supported this: “The College Board’s own study in 2008 revealed that differences in predictive validity for subgroups of students persist even after the 2005 test redesign,” wrote the university.
Later research conducted by Bates College over a 20-year period found that the difference in rate of graduation between people who went test-optional and those who did not was a minimal 0.1 percent. To add to that, the differences in GPA varied only by about 0.05 percent.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, colleges had more reasons to go test-optional than just the ones mentioned above; there was now a whole different atmosphere around college admissions.
When the world finally began to return to normal, though, many colleges thought bringing back test requirements was part of that return. As a result, there have been negative and positive outcomes. On one hand, students who do not have access to test-prep help may feel discouraged. From a different perspective, test scores may distinguish students from smaller schools and can create more opportunities for merit scholarships. They can also provide a non-biased perspective on a student, such that an essay or extracurricular activity couldn’t.
Overall, both the movement to reduce the use of standardized testing and the push to reinstate testing requirements provide valid arguments. The question each university or college needs to take into account is: which is more important: reviewing a student’s overall application more holistically or more academically? In both of these cases, standardized testing scores can be used, but in different ways. For students, the question to ask is, which are stronger, my test scores or my extracurriculars? And, most importantly, what is this college or university looking for in an applicant?
These questions can be difficult to answer, and that is why the discussion on testing varies so much. Further studies on testing and college admissions will arise and bring new perspectives as the standardized testing landscape evolves.
