Last month, the College Board announced policy changes to the ever-ominous SAT. It dropped the timed essay and 2,400-point grading scale, and the new exam, the Washington Post reported, will “dwell less on fancy vocabulary.” These reforms are the SAT’s attempt to stay relevant. Further, they aim to lower institutional barriers blocking high school students from higher education. Though these reforms are admirable, they do not equalize the playing field across socioeconomic barriers. Because of standardized testing’s inherent flaws, Dartmouth should eliminate the test requirement for future applicants.
Over the past decade, doing well on the SAT has increasingly become less about pure merit and hard work and more about who can afford the best tutors and the best study guides and who has the time to attend the most preparation classes. Private tutors can cost up to hundreds of dollars an hour, and even if students can afford the relatively less expensive guidebooks, they still need the time to use the books. Numerous studies show that SAT scores correlate with income; students who cannot afford a tutor or whose free time is eaten up by necessary after-school jobs are at a distinct disadvantage. Raw intelligence cannot always bridge that gap. Having an SAT tutor can be the difference between getting into college or not, or even receiving a scholarship. Though the College Board announced that they will offer free study guides online, those who can pay for tutors will still inevitably perform better overall. Though the SAT is not alone — the ACT and other standardized tests all suffer from the same problems — this is not a problem College Board itself can tackle.
Starting with applicants to the Class of 2020, Dartmouth would be wise to follow in the footsteps of test-optional colleges like Bowdoin College, Sarah Lawrence College and Smith College. Standardized testing is neither the only nor the best way to measure a potential student’s success. Those who want to submit their scores still could, but incredibly intelligent students whose finances may prevent them from performing optimally could show their prowess in other areas without their SAT or ACT scores putting them at a disadvantage.
Furthermore, going test-optional would encourage more students to apply to the College. We suffered a 14 percent drop in regular decision applications for the Class of 2018, after a 3 percent drop in applications with the Class of 2017. Dartmouth needs to do whatever possible to bring those numbers back up, especially in light of record-breaking application numbers at Brown University and the University of Pennsylvania. Among other policy and administrative changes, like massive tuition reform and substantially addressing recent student life issues, going test-optional would attract more applicants.
Statistically, going test-optional would also raise the College’s average SAT and ACT scores. Only those who feel that these tests adequately represent their intelligence would submit (i.e., only the highest scorers). Then, our median scores would increase, making us more competitive with other top-tier schools and thus more attractive. While rankings do not matter much post-matriculation, just think back to your junior and senior year of high school — it mattered then. Dartmouth has so much to offer potential applicants, but, first, they must apply.
We pride ourselves on offering the best undergraduate education in America. Going SAT-optional will not change that; standards for acceptance will not change alongside rules for applying. With a widened applicant pool comes students with diverse talents and modes of intellectual expression. Standardized tests promote the idea of cookie-cutter intelligence, that there is only one way to be smart. Moreover, standardized testing unfairly privileges students from higher-income families, reproducing economic stratification, an oft-cited issue at Dartmouth. Dartmouth should lead the Ivy League in deconstructing both the idea of standardized intelligence and the institutional barriers that benefit from it. We should blaze a path where more and more incredible students from all socioeconomic backgrounds want to apply to Dartmouth.
The administration knows that students are not test scores; going test-optional will ensure that they are not treated like one.
