[NYPOST] In April, the State University of New York (SUNY) announced that students applying to its four-year undergraduate colleges would no longer be required to submit their SAT or ACT scores. Vassar College, an elite liberal arts school in Poughkeepsie, dropped its standardized testing requirement for admission around the same time. And in March, Columbia University became the first in the Ivy League to go permanently test-optional.
These New York schools lead the nation in making their pandemic-era test suspensions indefinite, but others are likely to follow. Cornell has extended its test-optional policy through 2024, while Harvard has done so through 2026. A recent study by the National Center for Fair and Open Testing found that more than 80% of US colleges and universities didn’t require applicants seeking admission in fall 2023 to report SAT or ACT scores. This is in stark contrast to 2019 when more than half required standardized test scores to be submitted as part of their application process, according to Common App data,.
Why are colleges ramping up efforts to scrap standardized testing requirements? To get around an imminent Supreme Court strike-down of affirmative action, which benefits black and Hispanic students but penalizes Asian Americans.
Consider the average SAT and ACT scores for each of these racial and ethnic groups in 2021. Out of a possible SAT score of 1600, Asian Americans averaged 1,239; whites, 1,112; Hispanics, 967; and blacks, 934. Out of a possible ACT score of 36, Asian Americans averaged 24; whites, 21; Hispanics, 18.3; and blacks, 16.3. By going test-optional, colleges can, in the absence of affirmative action, continue admitting blacks and Hispanics (considered "underrepresented" in higher education) with low standardized test scores, while placing less value on the higher scores of many Asian Americans (considered "overrepresented").
Organizations like College Board, which administers the SAT, ACT, and Advanced Placement (AP) exams, and the National Association of College Admission Counseling (NACAC) have made these intentions clear. In a playbook for "advancing higher education diversity goals," the College Board describes, seemingly against its own economic interests, standardized tests and grades as "potential roadblocks" to furthering "diversity" on college campuses. The College Board’s "playbook" encourages admissions officers to consider "admissions materials that allow students to represent academic preparedness in multiple ways, in addition to or in lieu of standardized test scores."
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