Daniel Adibi ’26
While standardized tests like the SAT and ACT are often viewed negatively, many colleges have reinstated the required testing policies they had dropped during the COVID pandemic. This decision is absolutely correct. Standardized tests should be an important part of the college admissions process because they provide the best indication of students’ success in college and are the academic metric least influenced by socio-economic status.
Recently, colleges have followed a general trend of reintroducing required testing policies, but these policies are not uniform between colleges. Senior Associate Director of College Counseling Mary Maier shares an example: “MIT [has] been very upfront about their decision to go back to requiring testing…because their internal data showed that it was valuable and predictive of student success. Without that, they were less good at predicting who would be successful.” On the other hand, Senior Associate Director of College Counseling Oya Schooley points out that “there’s always been test-optional schools, even before COVID…and they’ve done research. They’re test-optional precisely because testing tells so little about you.”
One of the main criticisms of tests like the SAT and ACT is that they do not reflect what students learn in school, but rather reflect a student’s test-taking abilities. In fact, this aspect is beneficial when considered along with coursework. In college, students’ grades are largely determined by test performance, so being an adequate test-taker is crucial for success.
Photo courtesy of NBC News
Furthermore, standardized tests are actually the most accurate method colleges can use to compare students across schools. Every school uses a different GPA system, and colleges typically account for this by rescaling a student’s GPA using school-specific data. However, with rampant grade inflation and course difficulty variation across schools, it is difficult to measure these differences accurately. To this point, Asher Wan ’26 comments, “I don’t think any test will get 100% of students’ preparedness for college or anything in particular…But I think that out of everything, [the] SAT does a better job than GPA as an indicator of a student’s preparedness for college.” Recent research backs this claim. As reported in a March 2025 National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) working paper: “Standardized test scores predict academic outcomes with a normalized slope four times greater than that from high school GPA, all conditional on students’ race, gender, and socioeconomic status.”
Another major concern is that standardized tests benefit wealthier students over students of lower socioeconomic status. While true, understanding the reason behind this discrepancy is important. According to a 2002 University of Colorado Boulder working paper, “For those students that have taken both the PSAT and SAT, effect estimates of roughly 11 to 15 points on the math section and 6 to 9 points on the verbal are found. Only the math effects are statistically significant.” When compared to independent studying, SAT coaching provided a surprisingly marginal advantage.
It is important to note, however, that this does not fully capture the advantage that wealthier students have in testing. Access to higher-level schools, guidance counselors, and courses all contribute to a discrepancy much higher than 20 points. However, this reason is still not sufficient to abandon standardized tests. The 2002 study demonstrates that SAT or ACT tutoring itself is not the primary driver of score discrepancies—it instead lies in students’ access to a quality education. This is reflected just as much in SAT scores as it is in students’ course rigor and grades; wealthier students, in general, have access to better courses, tutors, and a stronger academic support system.
The SAT and ACT actually provide a more equal playing field compared to GPA and course rigor. Such standardized tests only cover up to Algebra II in math, which, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, is taken by approximately 85% of U.S. high school students. By limiting questions to topics covered by most schools, these tests provide more equitable conditions for students. This is supported by the 2025 NBER working paper, which found that standardized tests gave “no calibration bias,” meaning that two students with the same standardized test score, regardless of socioeconomic status, would perform equally well in college. Maier shares, “When I was on the college side, we absolutely did [contextualize]… and so, [we were] evaluating not just their standardized test scores, but their activities, their curricular choices, all of that in the context of the environments that they’re coming from.”
The current admissions procedure rightfully prioritizes extracurricular activities and essay writing to fully understand students. From the college counseling perspective, Schooley shares, “[They] might be excellent students, but testing is not their strong suit. So when there is a lot of emphasis on test scores…I don’t think that gives that student the consideration that they should have.” While standardized testing should be a necessary component of college admissions, it in no way should replace the holistic process already in place.
