Yale Reverses Course, Will Require Standardized Tests

UPDATE Feb 22, 2024 12:53 PM CST

First, Dartmouth. Now, Yale. The latter has become the second Ivy League institution to reverse course and require standardized testing for incoming students, reports the New York Times. Both were among schools that ditched SAT and ACT requirements during the pandemic. Yale will allow students to submit scores from the Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate tests in place of SAT or ACT scores if they wish.

Feb 5, 2024 8:36 AM CST

College hopefuls got a bit of a reprieve from standardized testing during the peak of the pandemic, but one Ivy League institution is now about to put an end to that. The Wall Street Journal reports that Dartmouth College will once more require SAT or ACT scores to be submitted with student applications, noting that research shows such test scores are a helpful determinant in whether students at the New Hampshire school will succeed in their first year there. "I've become less convinced that [test] optional is working for us at Dartmouth," Lee Coffin, VP and dean of admissions and financial aid, tells the paper. "We're reanimating the policy based on evidence."

The requirement will kick in starting with next year's applicant pool. The research that Coffin cites, conducted by faculty from Dartmouth and fellow Ivy League school Brown University, was spurred last summer by the arrival of new Dartmouth President Sian Beilock, a cognitive scientist, per the New York Times. What those researchers found was that SAT scores were better predictors of student success at Dartmouth than high school grades, essays, or teacher recommendations. However, they also made what the Times calls a more surprising finding: that Dartmouth's test-optional policy was actually hurting the lower-income students it was supposed to be helping.

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As it turns out, a good number of Dartmouth applicants from disadvantaged backgrounds had made the "strategic mistake" of not submitting their SAT scores, falsely believing they hadn't done well enough. The Times notes that "in truth the admissions office would have judged the scores to be a sign that students had overcome a difficult environment and could thrive" at the school. Coffin notes that some students who were rejected would likely have received an acceptance letter if they'd simply submitted their scores. (More SAT stories.)