Admissions Decisions Weekly Insights
Admissions Decisions Weekly Insights
Weekly undergraduate and graduate admissions articles curated by admissionsdecisions.com
Welcome back! Lots of exciting updates in the college and grad school admissions space. In previous posts, we have spoken a bit about the test-optionality trend among colleges and universities for SAT/ACT submission.
Recently, MIT made the decision to begin requiring the SAT/ACT for admissions purposes, moving in the opposite direction of other elite colleges and universities. As we stated in our Test Optional and Test Blind Admissions post (linked below), we have always encouraged students to continue taking the SAT/ACT for college admissions, whether the exam is required for an application or not.
College and universities are looking at preliminary data on how applicants that did not submit standardized test scores are faring compared to those who did. But more important than that data is the measurable impact on application data.
The number of students applying to 10+ colleges has increased. While application volumes have skyrocketed, seats at elite colleges have not. The result? Admissions officers have greater selection, applicants aren’t sure of what is “selective” and therefore applying to more colleges than ever.
For reference, the University of Chicago - the highest ranking college to be test-optional before the pandemic, still had 85-90% of applicants submitting SAT/ACT scores. And the pandemic has not slowed this trend down.
No matter what decisions colleges make, test-optional still means take the SAT/ACT for the foreseeable future if you want to be competitive in your classes.
This Week’s Articles:
As mentioned above, MIT has decided to return to test-required admissions status for upcoming applicant classes (Available without subscription for a limited time)
Know someone who is homeschooled who may be applying to college? Here are some key considerations.
It’s official - the ABA panel has voted to not require the LSAT or other standardized testing for law school accreditation purposes.