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Dartmouth College is breaking ranks with its elite US university peers by reinstating a requirement for standardised test results put on hold during the pandemic.
The school will require SAT, ACT or Advanced Placement results from US applicants and equivalents such as the International Baccalaureate or national school-leaving exams such as the UK’s A-levels from foreign students.
The action follows analysis of the performance of students admitted during the Covid-19 pandemic, when universities dropped tests or made them optional as schools switched to remote learning and exams were cancelled or modified.
The research found that the tests provided a better indicator of students’ undergraduate performance than alternative measures and did not limit diversity.
It comes at a time when Dartmouth has experienced a sharp jump in applications from abroad after introducing a “need-blind” admissions policy in 2022, in which an applicant’s finances are not taken into account, with financial aid where needed for all students.
International applications jumped 10 per cent in the past year to a third of the total, led by more than 1,000 from India while China has stabilised at about 570.
Lee Coffin, Dartmouth’s dean of admissions, said: “For our increasingly large pool outside the US, we need some way in a standardised framing to get more data. The pandemic imprint is ending. I have a feeling in the next six months, colleges will begin to reactivate tests or stay permanently optional.”
The SATs and equivalent high school tests have long been criticised for perpetuating racial and class biases, with an industry of educational consultants and tutors charging to help richer students achieve higher scores.
However, the alternatives of relying on resumes, application essays, recommendations and interviews are also viewed as highly subjective and at least as likely to favour better off students with families able to pay for additional support.
Research commissioned by Dartmouth concluded that dropping the requirement for tests did not increase the diversity of candidates. It found that those from lower socio-economic backgrounds did not apply or submit test scores which would have strengthened their case if they believed erroneously that they were too low.
It found that grade point averages given by high school teachers based on performance in their classes and recommendations by college counsellors were far less reliable indicators of student performance once they reached university than SATs.
Those admitted to Dartmouth without SATs on average only scored better than the lowest 30 per cent of the total intake in their first-year university exams.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology reintroduced SATs in 2022, but most other elite universities have not. A survey of 185 colleges last year by the National Association for College Admission Counseling showed that only 4.9 per cent considered SATs or ACTs of “considerable importance” in admissions, compared with 76.8 per cent for high school grades.
The University of California system said it has “ended use of standardised tests in freshman admissions for the foreseeable future”, adding that it “remains committed to maintaining a fair admissions process that reviews every applicant in a comprehensive manner and endeavours to combat systemic inequities.”
Coffin said: “Testing is both a way of confirming ability to succeed and understanding who you are.”
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