Juniors on campus took the SAT on Wednesday as colleges such as Dartmouth are making the move to reinstate the requirement for applicants to submit scores from the SAT or ACT, a mandate that Dartmouth, and hundreds of other U.S. schools had dropped during the COVID-19 pandemic. Shortly after Dartmouth’s announcement, Yale University followed suit reversing their four-year old test-optional policy. 

According to president Sian Beilock, Dartmouth’s renewed standardized test policies decision, starting with the class of 2029, came from an internal research study which found that the SAT is a valuable tool to identify high-achieving applicants from middle- and low-income backgrounds.

“Analysis of this data…. has led us to conclude that our holistic admissions approach to identifying the most promising students, regardless of their background, benefits from a careful consideration of testing information as part of their application package,” Beilock said. “In particular, SAT/ACTs can be especially helpful in identifying students from less-resourced backgrounds who would succeed at Dartmouth but might otherwise be missed in a test-optional environment.”

Yale University is ready to welcome their new policy for the class of 2025 however, AP and IB scores can be submitted instead of SAT and ACT scores. 

“The product of four years of research and reflections is a new policy, announced this week. Yale will again require students to include scores with their applications,” Yale said in its statement. “But, for the first time, Yale will allow applicants to report Advanced Placement (AP) or International Baccalaureate (IB) exam scores in lieu of the ACT or SAT.”

Junior Anita Okorie would prefer the option of going test-optional but after seeing both Dartmouth’s and Yale’s reasoning, she understands why the top universities made the decision.

“I would definitely prefer the flexibility of having the option to go test-optional,” Okorie said. “However, I can see why Yale and Dartmouth would want to reinstate their SAT score requirements for admission. I saw it as restrictive at first but it’s the best thing to do to ensure fairness and set standards in admissions.” 

Discussions have started online on whether Dartmouth’s and Yale’s decision will encourage other top colleges and universities across the country to reinstate the policy. 

For college admissions consultant Alisa Hauser, the SAT is definitely making a comeback and its implementation will be beneficial to students in marginalized communities and create a diverse college campus. 

“All signs point to the SAT making a comeback. When the Supreme Court prohibited affirmative action as part of the admissions process, top schools re-evaluated other ways to create diverse college campuses,” Hauser said. “Yale and Dartmouth made the decision to bring back the SAT based on research that says considering test scores is beneficial for marginalized students. They believe it’s a positive indicator of how well students will perform in college.”

Sophomore Rupal Shirpurkar is taking this as an opportunity to study even harder for her SAT next year and earn a good score. 

“Hearing that other schools might start requiring students to submit their SAT scores made me start taking the exam more seriously,” Shirpurkar said. “I am currently enrolled in a practice class and hope that these extra efforts will help me get my dream score.”

According to Hauser, schools consider a student’s entire application not just an SAT score so students shouldn’t seek perfection rather, they should show their unique strengths and potential.

“I find that many students underestimate themselves when it comes to their scores,” Hauser said. “Top schools are looking at the whole application so don’t think there’s not a chance if you don’t have a “perfect” score. The goal is not perfection!”