The Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) has remained optional for most colleges in the nation ever since COVID-19, which largely impaired students’ ability to take the test. However, the past year has revealed a new trend in both private institutions like Yale University and even public schools, like University of Texas at Austin, which have both begun to reinstate the SAT as mandatory for all applicants. The reinstatement of the SAT will ultimately still end up not benefiting students of all backgrounds, as it is a valuable predictor of future academic success in college and can help differentiate students in a competitive applicant pool.
Recent data from institutions such as Dartmouth College has revealed an important trend: standardized test scores are actually quite correlative of a student’s performance in college, regardless of their background, according to president.dartmouth.edu. Additionally, students who did not provide a standardized test score in the first place generally performed worse in college, according to the same data. In fact, standardized testing is even more indicative than high school GPA towards both college GPA and college graduation rates.
Of course, if standardized testing were the sole factor in determining a student’s success, there would be inequalities evident in the admissions process. But that is hardly the case for most top institutions within the nation, as they utilize a much more intricate process to evaluate students, with standardized test scores only contributing to part of the process. As a matter of fact, with an increased abundance of fantastic high school GPAs in applicants, standardized testing remains a relatively important differentiating factor among applicants.
In the end, the issue simply doesn’t lie with just standardized testing, but the American college admissions process as a whole. As top institutions in the nation become increasingly competitive, other aspects of a student’s application become more important as well. Students from higher income families have greater access to resources such as sports coaching, participation in prestigious competitions, and college consultants, all of which can just be as important to college admissions as standardized testing scores are.
Despite a brief period of being test-optional, it is clear that many universities have changed their stance on the matter of standardized testing, which has been used as a scapegoat for the overall inequality in the entire college admissions process. While it is true that standardized testing isn’t perfect, it can still be a valuable tool in determining student success and offers a more equalized field for students to distinguish themselves, regardless of their background.