COllege Admissions News and ACT / SAT Strategy

Earlier this spring, we at MyGuru declared that test optional college admission policies were coming to an end for high school students applying to top American universities. As part of the upcoming 2024-25 application cycle beginning this fall, most of the Ivy League and a notable number of elite universities across the United States are once again requiring an ACT or SAT score. Now, Stanford has quietly announced (in a classic Friday news dump) that it too will be reinstating a standardized testing requirement for undergraduate applicants, but beginning in 2025, making this the final test optional application cycle for the Cardinal. This particular decision is important for two reasons:

1. It pushes the timeframe for application policy changes back a year
2. It puts Stanford in direct opposition to its California public university rivals

With Harvard and Caltech joining the ranks of selective colleges and universities requiring a standardized test once again as part of the 2024-25 application cycle, MyGuru is more than comfortable asserting that all high schoolers planning to attend college should once again plan to take either the ACT or SAT. While many applicants will see this as a negative (who wants to take a test on a weekend, right!?), this return to standardized testing requirements has been supported by each of the institutions reinstating the exams with data illustrating that test optional policies have actually harmed the at-risk and lower income students that they purportedly were intended to help.

This February, Dartmouth and Yale announced the return of standardized testing requirements as part of their undergraduate application processes. Both institutions provided rigorous statistical analysis illustrating that standardized tests remain the single best predictor of student performance upon admission, as well as evidence that removing the standardized testing requirement, contrary to popular belief, actually led to a decrease in admissions of lesser-served student populations. Still, despite overwhelming evidence, these decisions have been met with both approval and derision as various constituencies project larger philosophical debates onto the issue of standardized testing in college admissions.

College Board Cancels all Spring SAT Exams

Having already cancelled its May 2 SAT test date, CollegeBoard announced this past week that it will be canceling its previously scheduled June 6 test date worldwide as well. This means that there will not be another SAT exam offered until August 29 at the very earliest, so nearly six months will have passed between possible SAT administrations for juniors planning to take the exam this year. In making this announcement, CollegeBoard also indicated that it is preparing an online version of the exam in the fall should in-person administrations still be prohibited by the pandemic. This follows in the footsteps of announcements from both GMAC and ETS that, at least temporarily, each organization would be offering and at-home online GMAT and an at-home online GRE exam respecctively.