Pencils down… Dartmouth became the first Ivy League school to bring back standardized testing admissions requirements. It’s been four years since the pandemic shut down testing centers, prompting thousands of schools to make the SAT and ACT optional. But now, as schools reckon with questions around legacy applicants and a Supreme Court ruling against affirmative action, they’re rethinking their admissions criteria again.
Gap: Nearly 90% of students from wealthy families go to college, compared to about 65% from middle-income families and around 50% from families with low incomes. A Harvard study found that students from the top 1% of households are 2X as likely to be admitted to and attend an Ivy than applicants with similar test scores from middle-class families.
But: Dartmouth said that it found that standardized testing gives lower-income applicants a leg up. By evaluating test scores with the student’s high school in mind, it said it’s easier to identify high performers from less resourced communities.
Pricey tutors and test prep… Critics of standardized testing say it favors the wealthy. Students and parents spent a record $1B on tutors, classes, and software (think: Chegg) to prep for standardized tests in 2019. The Princeton Review’s most popular online SAT-prep course costs $2.2K. Extreme example: some parents pay up to $750K for college consultants. The actual tests cost $60 to $90 a pop, and while a limited # of fee waivers are available, wealthier students can afford to retake tests more times.
Testing was never really optional… After colleges dropped testing requirements, applications flooded colleges like Hogwarts letters. In turn, acceptance rates dropped by a lot. Facing that tough competition, school counselors have questioned how “optional” tests really were. MIT, which also brought back tests, said high scores sweeten a student’s application, especially when they don’t have access to as many AP classes and extracurriculars.