Yale University announced Thursday that it will resume requiring prospective students to the Ivy League institution to submit standardized test scores when applying for admission.
The New Haven, Connecticut-based university said “research and reflections” have shown that testing can “highlight an applicant’s areas of academic strength” and can help add diversity in the classroom.
It switched to a test-optional policy nearly four years ago because of the coronavirus pandemic.
“Let’s start with what we know to be true: every standardized test is imperfect and incomplete. No exam can demonstrate every student’s college readiness or perfectly predict future performance,” Yale officials said in a news release. “Yale has not, does not, and will never rely on testing alone to assess student preparedness.”
The change will be required for all first-year applicants beginning in the fall of 2025. It will also allow prospective students to include Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate exam scores in place of the ACT or SAT, Yale said.
Earlier this month, another Ivy League school, Dartmouth College, announced a similar change to its policy. Beginning with the undergraduate class of 2029, standardized test scores would again be required.
Dartmouth said a study commissioned by university President Sian Beilock and conducted by university economists and an educational sociologist found that standardized test scores, when evaluated alongside high school grades, were “the most reliable indicators for success in Dartmouth’s course of study.”
Yale acknowledged that reviewing applications without ACT or SAT scores was a “positive experience,” but found that it worked to the disadvantage of prospective students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. Because testing had been removed, a greater weight was placed on other parts of the application such as rigorous high school courses and extracurricular activities that were “full of enrichment opportunities.”
The…
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