While the Covid-19 pandemic was at its worst, many institutions changed their admissions policies to test-optional ones to accommodate applicants. Nevertheless, as the threat from the pandemic has subsided, this change in policy has now become the norm across the country.
Eighty per cent of US bachelor-degree granting institutions will not require students seeking fall 2023 admission to submit either ACT or SAT standardised exam scores, a survey by National Centre for Fair and Open Testing (FairTest) USA reveals.
At least 1,835 US colleges and universities are currently adopting either ACT/SAT-optional or test score-free practices, according to an updated list released by the FairTest last November.
Ivy league universities including Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, Princeton University, and Yale University have also opted for test-optional criteria for admissions to the undergraduate programme. With this, the students will now be evaluated on the basis of submitted interest letter, essays and interviews.
Let’s understand why universities pausing or ending the use of standardised admission tests and how it will impact Indians willing to study in US universities.
What is SAT?
The College Entrance Examination Board, which started in 1900 with 12 presidents of top universities to administer college entrance exams and standardise the admissions process, tapped Princeton University psychology professor Carl C Brigham to devise an exam that a broader group of schools could use. Now known as the SAT, that test was first administered to high school students in 1926.
Why are universities dropping SAT as a criteria?
While the Covid-19 pandemic was at its worst, many institutions changed their admissions policies to test-optional ones to accommodate applicants. Nevertheless, as the threat from the pandemic has subsided, this change in policy has now become the norm across the country.