NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Abandoning a policy put in place at the beginning of the pandemic, Yale University will once again require standardized testing for admission.
The university, based in New Haven, said at the time the test-optional admissions process was needed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. They said on their website that the last few years with the policy had been an "invaluable opportunity" to think about the testing policy while analyzing data.
Yale follows two others in their decision: Dartmouth College and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dartmouth College changed its admissions policy at the beginning of February, while MIT changed it back in 2022.
Yale will require testing scores with applications. However, it's considered a flexible policy because Yale will allow applicants to report Advanced Placement (AP) or International Baccalaureate (IB) exam scores in lieu of the SAT or ACT.
During the pandemic, education was disrupted for high school students nationwide, and testing also suffered. But, four years later, Yale officials said that with students able to test once more, it's better to shift to a test-flexible policy rather than a test-optional one.
According to a letter written by Jeremiah Quinlan, the Dean of Undergraduate Admissions and Financial Aid, the experience with the test-optional policy persuaded the department that requiring only the SAT or ACT tests can "discourage promising students from considering colleges like Yale."
But, according to the letter, the experience also showed that inviting students to apply without any test scores can inadvertently disadvantage students from low-income, first-generation, and rural backgrounds.
Yale states on their website that a student applicant's transcript can tell the admissions committee a lot about the candidate's preparation. Still, testing can fill in "additional parts of the picture," saying that the tests can highlight areas of academic strength, fill in gaps, and identify students whose performance stands out in their high school.
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Yale is a highly selective school. In 2023, Over 51,000 people applied to attend the university, with just 4.5% of those applicants admitted.
The school emphasized that despite the shift in policy, the applicants are "not their scores," and the selection process is not an exercise in sorting students by their standardized test scores.
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Jennifer Glatz is a digital content producer at FOX61 News. She can be reached at jglatz@fox61.com.
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