In ACT Test, Admissions Statistics, SAT Test, Standardized Testing

The Washington Post published an article about whether or not the pandemic-driven move to test optional will lead to permanent test-free admission. In other words, will colleges drop the SAT and ACT requirements after the pandemic ends?

We will stick with last month’s prediction that it is still too early to know for sure. We recall about two decades ago when Harvard Business School announced they had quietly tracked two different groups of applicants. Some had their GMAT scores reviewed and some did not. HBS concluded there was no difference between the admitted applicants and, hence, was going to drop the GMAT. We expected other business schools to follow their lead, but that didn’t materialize at the time.

As a result of that and other observations we have made over the years, we are not yet convinced that standardized tests will not make a comeback. (Especially considering how powerful computer-adapted technologies may be at diagnosing quantitative, verbal, and other skills.) Nonetheless, this has a rather significant social push and it will undoubtedly remain a newsworthy trend that we will keep close tabs on.

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