Posted on 02/07/2024 8:21:56 AM PST by Twotone
Dartmouth College, a private Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, announced Monday that standardized testing scores will once again be required for admission.
An article from the university explained that class of 2029 applicants will be required to submit SAT or ACT scores to be granted admission, according to a campus-wide email from President Sian Leah Beilock.
Dartmouth previously suspended the requirement for undergraduate applicants in June 2020, citing COVID-19. Other institutions, including Brown University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Harvard University, also paused the requirement. MIT has since reinstated the admission policy.
"It was a pragmatic pause taken by most colleges and universities in response to an unprecedented global pandemic," the school stated in a recent press release. "At the time, we imagined the resulting 'test-optional' policy as a short-term practice rather than an informed commentary on the role of testing in our holistic evaluation process. Nearly four years later, having studied the role of testing in our admissions process as well as its value as a predictor of student success at Dartmouth, we are removing the extended pause and reactivating the standardized testing requirement for undergraduate admission, effective with the Class of 2029."
According to the university, the requirement will "improve — not detract from — our ability to bring the most promising and diverse students to our campus."
A new research study conducted by a group of faculty revealed that high school grades coupled with standardized testing are "the most reliable indicators for success" at the university.
"[The study] also found that test scores represent an especially valuable tool to identify high-achieving applicants from low and middle-income backgrounds; who are first-generation college-bound; as well as students from urban and rural backgrounds," the university stated.
Economics professor Bruce Sacerdote, who participated in the research group, explained that some applicants opted not to share their test scores when it could have "helped that student tremendously, maybe tripling their chance of admissions."
Lee Coffin, vice president and dean of admissions and financial aid, noted that the study's results were specific to Dartmouth and not a "grander statement about higher ed across the United States."
Last year, Columbia University became the first Ivy League institution to permanently eliminate standardized test requirements for admissions. West Virginia University also dropped the requirement, claiming it would reduce the "stress" of the college application process for undergraduates, Blaze News previously reported.
In October, ACT reported that test scores hit a 30-year low, with high school students' results declining for six consecutive years. According to ACT, the average composite score dropped by 0.3 points from 2022.
Objective tests are racist according to the perpetual grievance crow.
Answering multiple choice questions does not give a full picture of a students ability in English.
But it does add something to the picture.
I would like to cheer this, but there’s got to be a catch somewhere, DEI isn’t going to die so easily
Everyone should wear a ‘Guess My IQ’ tag.
“Everyone should wear a ‘Guess My IQ’ tag.”
...lol! And on their back, their actual IQ.
Standardize testing has always been a reliable predictor of academic success. Dartmouth and MIT are probably tired of having illiterate and innumerate students trying to get an ivy league education. But in deference to the DEI juggernaut these schools will not discard extraneous racial and cultural criteria..
you can’t hold DEI students to those standards, that racist.
Good weeding tools
They don't tell everything, but they are by far the best screening tool, especially given the decline in academic standards, grade inflation and the rise of social promotion in K-12. There are kids that graduated from schools in the hood with 4.0 GPAs that cannot read, write or do even basic math so GPA is pretty much meaningless these days unless you know the quality of the school.
Considering the cost-benefit analysis, college degrees and especially graduate degrees, have lost value bigly. It’s a very poor product to buy when it’s mostly the world’s most expensive adult daycare.
They are probably tired of having to deal with students who got pushed along throughout middle and high school. They get to college as a Freshman and they can not compose a simple paragraph or calculate basic math equations.
I see a large percentage increase of Asian students in their future.
There are kids entering the college ranks throughout the country, in error, because the SAT test has been eliminated. So we have students that can’t read/write or do math. Let that sink in.
Will they claw back the students that eased into these institutions without taking these tests? Will they be forced to take them now?
But they can manage to get Federal Reserve Notes from the ATM machine ...
Nice to see Dartmouth wake up.
I still hold a slight grudge against them since they waitlisted me back in the day:)
“”It was a pragmatic pause taken by most colleges and universities in response to an unprecedented global pandemic,” the school stated in a recent press release.”
Horsehockey! Don’t blame it on Covid. Many students still did well on the SAT and ACT. Admit them.
This is all greed by the universities wanting more of that government student loan money and blowing smoke on illegal diversity enrollment.
EC
“Standardized testing has always been a reliable predictor of academic success.”
Generally, OK, I’ll agree.
But, and you knew there would be a but . . .
Some folks can afford 2 years of high-powered test-prep.
Some can’t.
Some folks can sit for a few hours to take tests.
Some physically can’t.
Some folks crap out on tests, but do course work just fine.
Some are calm and cool test takers.
The world is a brite and shiny place, filled with all kinds of people, with all kinds of talents and abilities. Discovering those gifts is all the trouble.
How “Standardized” is a test if the circumstances are all different? Just the questions?
That requires standardized language, and that’s a whole ‘nother thang y’all.
Standardized tests are good, for what they can show.
But they only show one piece.
“... tired of having illiterate and innumerate students trying to get an ivy league education...”
If the test was based upon english success, then it would be a true barrier to entrance. We are a product of our upbringing and a person from Louisiana speaks different than a person in New York.
But there is a more problematic area to tests. There is the possibility of not creating the tests to cover the ineptness or strengths of incoming students which without discovery may be wasted.
People are not intelligent in all fields. A mathematician may not be english strong. An artist that can’t pay the price for Juliard isn’t any less intelligent than the english major. And the tests cannot cover the overall capacity of many students that are even above most others. Names like Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, Mark Twain, Jack London, Charles Dickens, Walt Disney, Bill Gates and many more either quit school or never went past high school if they even graduated. And some with disbilities never made it through college like W A Mozart, George Washington and Ludwig van Beethoven all would have been denied.
So they have three choices, they can rewrite the tests to cover all possibilities which is impossible, do away with them and detgermine based upon merit through interviews, or they can guess at who could be a success in life which they would miss on.
wy69
“... tired of having illiterate and innumerate students trying to get an ivy league education...”
If the test was based upon english success, then it would be a true barrier to entrance. We are a product of our upbringing and a person from Louisiana speaks different than a person in New York.
But there is a more problematic area to tests. There is the possibility of not creating the tests to cover the ineptness or strengths of incoming students which without discovery may be wasted.
People are not intelligent in all fields. A mathematician may not be english strong. An artist that can’t pay the price for Juliard isn’t any less intelligent than the english major. And the tests cannot cover the overall capacity of many students that are even above most others. Names like Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, Mark Twain, Jack London, Charles Dickens, Walt Disney, Bill Gates and many more either quit school or never went past high school if they even graduated. And some with disbilities never made it through college like W A Mozart, George Washington and Ludwig van Beethoven all would have been denied.
So they have three choices, they can rewrite the tests to cover all possibilities which is impossible, do away with them and detgermine based upon merit through interviews, or they can guess at who could be a success in life which they would miss on.
wy69
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