By Bonnie Shao and Jaya Goud, Banner Staff

There are a multitude of components that go into preparing a strong college application, including extracurriculars, essays, grades, and scores on standardized tests like the SAT and ACT. However, since the COVID-19 pandemic, during which many SAT and ACT testing sites were forced to close down, many colleges have adopted an “optional” policy on submitting standardized test scores. This change has fueled a debate over the necessity of colleges’ factoring standardized test scores into the admissions process, and we believe that colleges should indeed do so.

Standardized testing remains necessary in the college admissions process as it provides a common metric to compare applicants from diverse backgrounds. Other parts of a student’s application, such as extracurriculars, essays, and recommendations, are often subjective and influenced by a variety of factors. Affluent students can generally afford personal essay coaches, college counselors, and extracurriculars that appear more impressive to colleges. Furthermore, students with access to counselors who can edit their essays and guide them through the admissions process can often construct a stronger application. In contrast, Kimberly Nguyen ’25 remarked that “[standardized tests] are generally available to most students,” showing that these tests serve as an objective and largely accessible way for colleges to gauge academic readiness. By providing colleges with a consistent scale, standardized testing helps to ensure that all applicants, regardless of background, are evaluated analogously.

One prominent argument against standardized testing is the gap in results based on socioeconomic status. Economists at Harvard’s Opportunity Insights performed a survey that compared students’ parents’ income group with their score on the SAT: 31% of children of parents in the top 1% income group scored 1300 or higher, while only 2.4% of children from the bottom 20% income group scored within this range. Ms. Monteagudo ’06, one of Winsor’s guidance counselors, commented, “Some families can invest in study guides and tutoring, while other families may not be able to prepare in that way.” However, alternative forms of evaluating a student’s potential, such as extracurricular activities, can be even less accessible. Students from more privileged backgrounds are often more likely to receive extracurricular opportunities—such as internships, publishing opportunities, and acceptance to prestigious programs—through familial connections than students who do not have such resources. Ms. Monteagudo also commented on the detrimental effect that intense focus on extracurriculars can have on students’ mental health, saying, “if you’re only focused on being the best of the best in [an activity], you lose your connection [to it].”

Although many legitimate concerns have been raised against standardized testing, it still proves to be one of the most objective indicators of success in college and beyond. A 2024 study by Opportunity Insights showed that students’ standardized test scores strongly aligned with their grades in college. Additionally, an Opportunity Insights study from 2023 showed that scores on the SAT/ACT more strongly predicted a students’ attending a top graduate school or being hired by a prestigious company than high school grades. While standardized testing may not be a perfect system, it remains one of the most unbiased ways to evaluate academic potential across a diverse range of applicants and should ultimately remain a constituent of the college admissions process. 

Responses have been edited for brevity and clarity.

Sources:

The Misguided War on the SAT – The New York Times

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/10/23/upshot/sat-inequality.html

https://opportunityinsights.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/CollegeAdmissions_Paper.pdf

https://opportunityinsights.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/SAT_ACT_on_Grades.pdf