[An image of a test paper. Photo Credit: Pixabay]

Yale University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Dartmouth College recently announced a major shift in their admissions policies. They will start requiring SAT or ACT scores again after years of test-optional admissions.  

The test has two sections, reading and writing, and the other being math which mainly requires concepts until Algebra 2 to be learned prior to taking it.

The ACT has a lot more sections including math, reading, English, science, and an optional writing portion for those who would like to do so.

Both tests are utilized by colleges to compare the students who are applying to their school which come from different districts, leading to a difference in grading systems, to be able to see how they perform within a standardized test. 

This also serves as a basic prediction of how ready they are for the heavier coursework that the e colleges offer, and is sometimes also used for placement and scholarship purposes. 

This change will be applied to the upcoming admissions cycles, which in other words applies to everyone who is after the students who are graduating high school in the year of 2029 or later for most schools.

The policy of schools being test optional started after the COVID-19 pandemic, around 2020 where there were a lot of disruptions in regards to taking these standardized tests.

The universities that are changing these policies include schools such as Dartmouth College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Yale University, where they all introduced new systems where they agreed that they are reconsidering these systems to identify strong students with a lot of potential from schools that are under-resourced. 

These institutions emphasize how this allows the admissions to have more equity, as grades may not stand out for them, but they have a lot of potential in other areas.

Similarly, the admissions also stated how there are inflations for grades and applications, making the selection process more difficult to go through with the current policy. 

This has led to many students complaining and expressing concerns that they are now in the pressure to prepare for these tests once again, while the others feel that this helps to differentiate and grow equity, while the entire process is seeming a lot more clear compared to the past.

In summary, the move by these prestigious schools to make standardized tests necessary once again is highly likely to impact these other schools' decisions regarding their testing policy for admissions.