Dartmouth To (Again) Require ACT And SAT Scores For The Enrolling Class Of 2025
Do test scores predict college success? New data from Dartmouth College says “yes”. Therefore, on February 5th, 2024, Dartmouth announced it would once again require applicants to submit ACT or SAT test scores beginning with the enrolling class of 2025.
Following The Data
In doing so, Dartmouth joins MIT, Georgetown, Purdue and several other schools that have reinstated testing requirements. But Dartmouth isn’t just following a trend. They’re following their data.
Last summer, the new president of Dartmouth, Sian Beilock, asked a team of professors to do an internal study of the relationship between standardized testing and success in college. According to the New York Times, who reported on the study:
“Test scores were a better predictor than high school grades — or student essays and teacher recommendations — of how well students would fare at Dartmouth.”
Don’t Test Scores Give The Upper Hand To Higher-Income Populations?
Surprisingly, the Dartmouth data suggested that some lower-income students were actually put at a disadvantage with the test optional policy.
Colleges can access applicants’ scores after the admissions process is finished, so the Dartmouth researchers looked at the test scores of students who had not submitted them. What they found was that many lower-income students assumed their scores were not competitive and did not submit them. The truth? The admissions office would have seen their scores as evidence of their ability to overcome a challenge – and succeed at Dartmouth.
Test Score Evaluation Can Be Subjective
So, it turns out something that seems, on face value, to be an objective measure of ability is viewed with a degree of subjectivity and context – at least by some admissions offices.
Dartmouth’s Dean of Admissions, Lee Coffin, indicates that the admissions committee judges an applicant’s environment partly by evaluating his or her test score in relation to average scores at the student’s high school. So, a mid-range score from a student at a lower performing school would, in this case, be treated as a better score than that same mid-range result for a student at a top-tier high school.
Colleges Requiring Test Scores Vs. Test Optional Colleges: What Does It Mean For You?
It is unclear how many schools will follow Dartmouth’s lead and reinstate required reporting, but Flying Colors believes it is important to be aware of new developments regarding testing so that you can prepare accordingly.
Furthermore, given the possibility that scores can be evaluated in context, all high school students should assess how test scores may impact their application portfolio and make informed decisions if they are given the choice to report.
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