MIT announces applicants once again must submit SAT or ACT scores, becoming the first prominent university to reverse a suspension of the requirement that was put in place because of the pandemic.
The reversal could reignite the debate over the value of test scores in college admissions, which have been criticized for putting minority and lower-income students at a disadvantage, but experts said it is not yet certain if other schools will follow.
MIT said it had a “longstanding policy of not penalizing students for disasters and disruptions” and that the policy “applied generally to the cancellations of activities and exams due to Covid-19.” MIT is"clearly an outlier," said Bob Schaeffer, the center's executive director. He added that schools that have done away with tests found that “you did not need to test scores to do admissions, selective admissions fairly or accurately.”
Test scores, he said, keep"many talented kids from applying to schools because they don’t believe that they’ve attained the test score requirements, sometimes because their parents don’t have the money to pay for test coaching, or the schools they’ve attended have not offered the test prep.” ACT, the nonprofit organization that administers the test, applauded MIT’s decision saying that its own data and “multiple other measures of readiness” found that the test scores improve admissions decisions and help with determining student placement and support.