VENKAT: Standardized tests: Equality in college applications
Post-pandemic, colleges and universities across the country took a bold step in dropping their SAT score requirement as part of the college application process. Because the pandemic caused a reduction in the number of available SAT and ACT exam dates, many colleges chose to go test-optional to accommodate students who were unable to access an open testing center or otherwise take the test.
While this decision made sense at the time, more than 2,000 institutions are choosing to remain test-optional for the 2025 admissions cycle. This decision has and will continue to change admissions standards and place more emphasis on other aspects of students' applications, creating an uneven playing field and removing one of the only standardized aspects of college admissions.
Test-optional admissions were a beacon of light for many students during the pandemic. A few years after the height of the pandemic, when I found myself in the position of applying to colleges, a precedent had been set to maintain the test-optional choice.
The stipulation of test-optional, though, seemed to be a misnomer — an admissions officer from a reputable college not-so-subtly implied during an open-house event I attended that even though the institution did not require a standardized test score, the score or lack thereof would still somehow play a role. Test-optional does not mean test-blind. According to Wafa Muflahi, a partner at a college consulting firm, "a test-optional policy does not mean that a college will not consider test scores entirely."
Evidently, a little less than 90 percent of Georgetown's 2021 admitted class submitted standardized test scores, implying that low-income students who do not submit test scores will be at a disadvantage and may face the prospect of lower chances of being admitted to top schools. The case against the SAT is that it fails to meet standards set by school curriculums and may not be an accurate measure of preparedness for university. The issue, though, is that school curriculums set no standard — every school and every teacher marches to the beat of their own drum to at least some extent. The U.S. has no national educational curriculum, and states propose vague estimates of what students should learn in each grade. The SAT and ACT were arguably the only standardized portion of admissions that evened the field for students of all backgrounds. Grade point average calculations are not a standardizing factor simply because different schools have different difficulty levels, different grade scales, different resources and different class levels and expectations.
A student's GPA, as calculated by one's high school, is not directly comparable to the GPA of a student from another high school. The difficulty of a class or exam is at the teacher's discretion, including whether they offer students extra credit.
Even if universities recalculate every student's GPA out of the same standardized scale, they cannot account for changes in difficulty or leniency. The fact that many colleges consider unweighted as opposed to weighted GPA definitely worsens the disparity in the rigor of teachers, classes and schools, even if it does possibly even out the grading scale.
The SAT is a simple statistic that measures common comprehension and critical thinking skills in a way that other aspects of admissions simply fail to. Moreover, the rest of a standard college application includes factors that are largely based on individual opportunities, such as jobs, volunteering hours, leadership positions and athletics. This means that students who are unable to dedicate time or money to such activities are automatically at a disadvantage simply because they are unable, due to whatever circumstance, to showcase the rigor and extensiveness of extracurricular activities that other, more well-off students may be able to do.
The flawlessness of a personal statement is also dependent on the number of people a student has at their disposal to review, edit and criticize their writing. For students who are wealthier and have access to the time, money and energy to dedicate to their personal statements, it gives them a significant advantage. With pitfalls such as these built into the application system that disadvantage students with fewer resources, it would be remiss to write off standardized tests entirely. While they, too, come with their pitfalls, the good outweighs the bad when it comes to prioritizing students and building some semblance of equity.
Tejaswini Venkat is a first-year in the School of Arts and Sciences majoring in biological sciences and minoring in psychology. Venkat's column, “Unsolicited Opinions,” runs on alternate Tuesdays.
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