Dartmouth College will reinstate the requirement for prospective students to submit standardized test scores (SAT/ACT etc.) for the class of 2029 (Fall 2025 admission) onward.
www.nytimes.com/...
Dartmouth College announced this morning that it would again require applicants to submit standardized test scores, starting next year. It’s a significant development because other selective colleges are now deciding whether to do so.
From “The Dartmouth”
www.thedartmouth.com/...
Dartmouth will reinstate the standardized test requirement for applicants to the Class of 2029 and beyond, according to a campus-wide email from President Sian Leah Beilock. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Dartmouth adopted a test-optional policy for applicants to the Classes of 2025, 2026 and 2027 and a test-recommended policy for applicants to the Class of 2028, according to Lee Coffin, Vice President and Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid.
“The reactivation [of the test-required policy] has been modeled on a very comprehensive research study by a group of faculty,” Coffin said in an interview with The Dartmouth.
According to Coffin, the research group — which consisted of economics professors Elizabeth Cascio, Bruce Sacerdote ’90, Douglas Staiger and sociology professor Michele Tine — shared their findings with Coffin and Beilock in early December 2023. The group’s findings were also published in an article in the New York Times last month.
The faculty research group concluded that “standardized test scores are an important predictor of a student’s success in Dartmouth’s curriculum” regardless of a “student’s background or family income,” according to Beilock’s email.
Here is a link to the study the conducted to assess the validity of standardized tests.
home.dartmouth.edu/…
SAT and ACT scores are highly predictive of academic performance at Dartmouth. This is consistent with previous research...Using detailed admissions data from IvyPlus institutions show that SAT and ACT scores also predict career
success, including high levels of earnings and attendance at elite graduate schools, holding family income constant. Importantly, the relationship between first-year college GPA and SAT/ACT scores is likewise quite similar across neighborhood income and other demographic subgroups at Dartmouth. By contrast, ... certain non-test score inputs in the admissions process, such as guidance counselor recommendations, do not predict college performance even though they do advantage more-advantaged applicants at IvyPlus institutions, increasing their admissions chances