Story by Susan Svrluga | The Washington Post
Yale University will again require students to submit standardized test scores when they apply for admission, school officials said Thursday. The decision comes after officials found that the scores were the single best predictor of students’ academic performance and that not considering them could be a disadvantage for those who have already faced daunting challenges.
The decision — which includes greater flexibility for applicants by allowing more types of tests — is likely to be closely watched not only by students aspiring to highly selective colleges and agonizing over test scores and other metrics, but also by other universities evaluating their own policies.
When the coronavirus pandemic scrambled testing, Yale and many other colleges dropped requirements that applicants submit standardized tests such as the SAT or ACT. With debate over the value of those tests — including criticism that they provided another barrier to disadvantaged students — many schools continued their test-optional policies even as the public health crisis eased.
Those years provided a chance for schools to examine the impact of the change, and many have not announced final decisions about what their policies will be. In analyses of the applicant pool, the admitted class, the freshman class, and comparisons of students who were admitted with and without test scores, Yale found that the scores accurately predicted academic performance. Students with higher scores were more likely to have higher grades at Yale.
Not only that, but test scores predicted students’ grades at Yale better than anything else on their applications, school officials said.
That finding was consistent with a study from a dozen highly selective colleges from Opportunity Insights, in which researchers found that even among otherwise similar students with the same grades in high school, SAT and ACT scores “have substantial predictive power for academic success in college.”
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Related: “A top college reinstates the SAT (And we commend them)”