Dartmouth Requires the SAT Again

Level 2 - Admissions 101

Welcome back!

Recently, it was announced that Dartmouth will be going back to requiring SAT/ACT for admissions. 

The rationale? They are lacking data to provide a complete view of the student. In their own words, there were some students who were rejected that, if their SAT/ACT scores had been included, they would have “had a better chance of acceptance.” 

Dartmouth is one of other elite colleges and universities that are moving back to test required in their admissions process. Whether you believe their stated rationale is a different matter. That is a big deal, and the question is whether other Ivy League schools will follow suit.

Our view has been consistent - we believed colleges would choose to remain test optional overall to give themselves greater flexibility in who they admit (particularly in light of the affirmative action decision last summer) and that only those that have ultra competitive programs would be inclined to seek standardized testing return as a requirement.

Is Dartmouth’s return to requiring standardized testing a surprise to us? A bit, but more so for the reasons they provided.

The rationale that students are scoring 1450s and 1500s on the SAT and would have been admitted had they seen them implies that Dartmouth was either 1) test blind or 2) that students did not submit them. 

We know that Dartmouth was test optional, so that eliminates option 1. That means only one thing - that students were not submitting competitive test scores because they believed it would hurt them.

This is far cry from the usual use case put forth for why test scores should be required - test optionality allows for students who would otherwise be noncompetitive in their test scores to be admitted.

The only reason students are not submitting those test scores is because they believe their scores are not competitive with historically admitted students. A 1500 is not a weak score - it puts you at the 95th percentile of all SAT scorers. 

Why does all of that matter?

Because the only reason someone does not submit a strong score is because they believe that the SAT determines admission, which it does not automatically. Obviously, someone with a 900 score is not getting into Yale, but the difference between a 1500 and a 1510 is statistically insignificant. We also have to acknowledge the average SAT score was a 1500.

Even if this is facetious, the main point is that admissions, at least from our experience and what is stated, is holistic. That means that no single factor is determinate.

If students are scoring well on the SAT but not submitting them, it is because they believe the SAT will hurt their chances for admission. But in a holistic admissions process, that should not be happening because no single admissions component can get you rejected or accepted. 

In our view, the only logical view is not that Dartmouth is missing out on great applicants, but more so because they are reviewing their data and finding that SAT correlates with something, whether that is overall graduation rate or some other key identifier. 

And that is our view - we believe that Dartmouth is likely an outlier and that most elite colleges will continue to keep test optional status because they want greater control over their admissions process.

Expect colleges to emphasize what we know - that college admissions is holistic and rarely comes down to a single factor.

Remember, the more competitive a college is, the more the details matter. But it is rare you hear a competitive college publicly state they regret not admitting certain students.

Until colleges and universities see diminishing returns on their students and believe that SAT is the reason for it, we would expect that colleges will continue to emphasize the holistic nature of admissions and be optional.

In the meantime, there will be a challenge on how to get applicants to understand when to submit and when not to submit standardized test scores.