To the Editor:
In “Extension of Harvard’s Test-Optional Policy Fires ‘a Shot Across the Bow’ of Higher Ed“ (The Chronicle, December 17), you write that Harvard’s decision to extend its test-optional policy through 2026 signals a “slow-marching” decline of the ACT and SAT. Does it? Or is it, as you suggest later in the article, a strategic marketing decision that benefits some students — but benefits colleges even more?
You ask why, in a test-optional world, so many students still flock to take these tests. The answer you provide quotes a Massachusetts high-school counselor as saying that high-achieving kids “live for the challenge” of a “top score,” while their college-educated parents consider testing a “rite of passage.”
As someone who tutors and advises families about standardized testing and college admissions, that just doesn’t ring true. I can think of dozens of ways my students would rather challenge themselves or spend their time — including some true rites of passage like learning to drive or getting a first job.
The truth? Students take the tests because they’re afraid if they don’t, they won’t get in.
One reason students and parents don’t take colleges at their word is because of the incredibly confusing and frustratingly opaque “it depends” language from admissions. Since the article specifically discusses Harvard, let’s look at what Harvard actually says in their standardized testing FAQs:
…“SAT and ACT tests are better predictors of Harvard grades than high school grades, but this can vary greatly for any individual. Students who have not attended well-resourced schools throughout their lives, who come from modest economic backgrounds or first-generation college families have generally had fewer opportunities to prepare for standardized tests. Each application to Harvard is read with great care, keeping in mind that talent is everywhere, but opportunity and access are not.”
The shift to test-optional admissions is a wonderful initiative to improve access for low-income and first-generation students. However, until colleges are willing to ‘fess up and say “unless these special circumstances apply to you, we’d prefer to see test scores,” the same old lack of transparency is still alive and well.
So let’s be honest: For most applicants, “test-optional” really means “test-preferred.”
Valerie Erde
Old Greenwich, Conn.