This February, Dartmouth became the first ivy league university to reinstate SAT/ACT requirements for prospective students’ applications starting for the undergraduate class of 2029.
So far their decision has only been shared by other elite colleges such as Georgetown, MIT and Yale and is predicted to be limited to prestigious universities.
Dartmouth’s restoration of SAT/ACT requirements was defended by a Dartmouth study that found standardized testing scores provided better evidence of a student’s academic performance than essays, teacher recommendations or grades.
“I think that while it’s not totally equitable for public schools to do this, private schools have the right, and it is one more thing to show on an overall kids résumé and learn more about them,” junior Harper Gardner said.
The UC and CSU systems have no plans to bring back required SAT/ACT testing.
After a 2020 study by Opportunity Insights found students from higher socioeconomic backgrounds were more likely to take the test and score higher, more than 1,900 colleges dropped the SAT/ACT requirements in an effort to encourage more low-income, first-generation college students.
“Bringing back the requirements for students to submit SAT or ACT scores could lead to a narrow focus on standardized test performance, overshadowing other important aspects of a student’s academic, extracurricular and personal achievements,” junior Jazmin Coronado Apesoa said. “It would place too much emphasis on standardized test scores and could incentivize students to focus excessively on test preparation at the expense of genuine learning and personal growth.”
