In a surprising and refreshing shift, Yale has announced it is going to bring back standardized testing, having made the tests optional since the COVID pandemic.
Why? Well, take a gander:
Yale will once again require prospective students to submit standardized test scores after making tests optional for the past four years https://t.co/CjhJr8UXu5 https://t.co/CjhJr8UXu5
— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) February 22, 2024
More from The Wall Street Journal:
Yale University will once again require prospective students to submit standardized test scores after making tests optional for the past four years.
The reinstated requirement, which affects students applying this fall for the class of 2029, makes Yale the second Ivy League school after Dartmouth College to bring standardized tests back after a pandemic-related hiatus. In a departure from past practice, however, Yale said Thursday it will be “test-flexible” by accepting not only the SAT and ACT exams, but scores from the International Baccalaureate as well as Advanced Placement exams.
The New Haven, Conn., school made the decision after it found that standardized test scores from all four of the exams were more predictive of academic success than high school grades.
The school cited its internal data as well as a study that found that students with the same high school GPA earned significantly higher grades during their freshman year in college if they scored 1600 on the SAT as compared with 1200.
Recommended
The tests should never have been optional in the first place.
The testing predicted academic success better than grades. That's significant.
The buried lede here is the absent test scores hurt lower-income students, who could have used those scores to demonstrate readiness for places like Yale.
Is this a splinter of sunshine in Academia? Hallelujah!
— AJ Bovee (@OGBovee) February 23, 2024
A small one, but yes. Hallelujah!
Breaking News: Yale University will require standardized test scores for admission, becoming the second Ivy League college to abandon test-optional policies.https://t.co/WbVhYOZHy7
— The New York Times (@nytimes) February 22, 2024
Dartmouth was first.
Looks like we're getting back to reality 🤔
— Unbiased NYT (@unbiasednyt) February 22, 2024
Hopefully.
Go through the admissions process now with my child. Definitely two sides to this, but there is such a wide disparity amongst high schools I am not sure how colleges and universities can compare applicants without a standardized method.
— Leigh Marcus (@LeighRMarcus) February 22, 2024
They really can't, which is the point.
“Yale officials said…that the shift to test-optional policies might have unwittingly harmed students from lower-income families…’test scores are the single greatest predictor of a student’s performance in Yale courses in every model we have constructed.’”. Surprising no? https://t.co/Ied03gEpKW
— PAnnicchino (@PAnnicchino) February 22, 2024
Not in the least.
For a lot of low income families, test scores are the only thing that sets you apart from the rest; for both admissions and scholarships. https://t.co/6kS7MVyMsD
— Robutt (@RobSummer) February 22, 2024
Progressive policies, enacted for any reason, always end up hurting the people they're intended to help.
Nature is healing. https://t.co/Zeu4srZr3M
— Isaac Willour (@IsaacWillour) February 22, 2024
Only took four years of 'two weeks to flatten the curve', too.
Waking up w a DEI hangover? "Dartmouth Reinstates SAT Requirement in First for Ivy League" https://t.co/2h5XzVZhtl
— Tammy Bruce (@HeyTammyBruce) February 22, 2024
And... "Yale to Require Standardized Test Scores for Admissions" https://t.co/FyZlq7CKuG
May DEI go away. Forever.
It is standardized testing that helped the brightest from minority groups break through these ivy covered gates.
— Joie de vivre (@joie_de_vivre42) February 22, 2024
And this, for some reason, bothers the Left, it seems.
100.00 says as soon as the class is 70% Asian they'll change policy.
— Spanky_McDotard 🌊🌊 (@SMcdotard) February 22, 2024
We wouldn't be entirely surprised.
Kind of amazing to me we let the colleges just do whatever the hell they want when it comes to admissions… https://t.co/BgBNHBTPJX
— Charles Johnson's Thoughts & Adventures (@JohnsonThought1) February 22, 2024
On one hand, they're private institutions (some of them, anyway). On the other, they do get federal dollars, just like other schools. You'd think there'd be some baseline standard across colleges and universities.
The trend to disregard ACT and SAT standardized testing has been disastrous, turning college admissions into an arbitrary and politicized process that entrenches racism against whites and Asians & rewards incompetence. It has also exposed these institutions to Title IX lawsuits.
— Fried Eggs on Rice (@div_thought) February 22, 2024
All of this.
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