What’s New
Harvard is the latest university to announce that it’s returning to requiring the SAT or ACT, starting with applicants to the class that begins in the fall of 2025.
The Details
Like many colleges, Harvard required standardized-test scores from applicants before the pandemic. It went test-optional in June 2020 because access to test centers was limited. One major reason it’s going back now is that officials think standardized tests are “a valuable tool to identify promising students at less well-resourced high schools,” according to an announcement sent to journalists on Thursday.
“In exceptional cases when applicants are unable to access SAT or ACT testing,” Harvard has a list of other tests it will accept instead.
The Backdrop
The announcement cites recent research from Raj Chetty and his colleagues at Opportunity Insights, which found that people with higher SAT scores are more likely to have excellent post-college outcomes, controlling for race, gender, and parental income. The paper defines top post-college outcomes as: attending a top-10-ranked graduate school; working at a firm that employs a disproportionate number of alumni of Ivy-Plus colleges; or being on track to earning a top-1-percent income by age 33.
In other words, between two students of the same demographics and family wealth, the student with the significantly higher SAT score is more likely to have one of the outcomes described above.
Among applicants to Ivy-Plus colleges — which Chetty and his colleagues defined as the Ivy League institutions, plus Duke and Stanford, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of Chicago — high-school GPAs weren’t at all associated with those rarefied life paths.
A number of colleges have recently announced permanent SAT policies, after pauses for the pandemic. Brown University, Dartmouth College, the University of Texas at Austin, and Yale University have said they’re returning to the test. Columbia University and the University of Michigan chose to go permanently test-optional, while, in 2021, the University of California system went test-blind, which means that test scores aren’t considered. The different moves have renewed debate about what test policies are fairest for populations that higher education has historically underserved.
The Stakes
Officials and faculty members at Harvard, like at many of its test-requiring peers, argue that their policies will help disadvantaged applicants.
“When students have the option of not submitting their test scores, they may choose to withhold information that, when interpreted by the admissions committee in the context of the local norms of their school, could have potentially helped their application,” Hopi E. Hoekstra, dean of the university’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, said in a statement.
Chetty offered a statement as well: “Critics correctly note that standardized tests are not an unbiased measure of students’ qualifications, as students from higher-income families often have greater access to test prep and other resources,” it says. “But the data reveal that other measures — recommendation letters, extracurriculars, essays — are even more prone to such biases. Considering standardized test scores is likely to make the admissions process at Harvard more meritocratic while increasing socioeconomic diversity.”