In March, MIT made headlines for reinstating its requirement that applicants submit their SAT or ACT scores, beginning with the 2022-2023 admissions cycle. Like many schools, MIT had waived these requirements during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, although the pandemic was a consideration in their decision-making process, the decision to remove and reinstate the requirement was more complicated. In addition to improving pandemic conditions, MIT also referenced socioeconomic diversity and the predictive power of standardized tests.
Advocates for test-optional admissions have often argued that standardized testing requirements are unfair to students from disadvantaged backgrounds, who might not have the same opportunity as their peers to prepare for these tests. However, in a Q&A with Stuart Schmill, the Dean of Admissions at MIT, he stated that in MIT's experience, these requirements generally had the opposite effect. He argued that standardized testing provided a way to identify promising students who may not have had access to rigorous coursework, extracurricular activities, or strong letters of recommendation. Although he acknowledged that standardized testing could also create barriers to entry in some cases, he believed those barriers to be less than those created by looking purely at other factors.
MIT also stated that its data suggested that SAT and ACT scores, particularly mathematics scores, were strongly indicative of whether a student would succeed at MIT. Schmill suggested that this was largely because of the rigorous mathematics requirements at MIT; even if students had strong skills in other disciplines, if they were not prepared for MIT's math curriculum, they often struggled. Schmill argued that standardized testing could predict whether a student would be able to succeed in these math courses.
Although some factors, such as the effect on disadvantaged students, are relevant to all colleges, other factors, such as the rigor of MIT's mathematics curriculum, are specific to MIT. So far, no other colleges have followed suit, so it is unclear what impact, if any, MIT's decision will have on other colleges. However, it is likely that in the coming months, many colleges will choose to clarify their policies, regardless of whether they keep those policies the same, transition to being test-optional, or reinstate a mandatory testing policy that they had put on pause.
Francis Burke, Test Prep Chicago Intern