The arguments by the school’s dean of admissions and student financial services fully justify MIT’s decision, and they deserve careful consideration at other colleges.
While many colleges are going “test-optional” — or even “test-blind," refusing even to consider ACT or SAT scores — the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is breasting the tide. After suspending testing requirements during the pandemic, the school just announced that standardized tests would be mandatory again.
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It did so with a careful, citation-rich blog post from Stu Schmill, the school’s dean of admissions and student financial services. Mr. Schmill’s arguments fully justify MIT’s decision, and they deserve careful consideration at the colleges rushing to abandon testing too.
Why does a school like MIT use standardized tests as part of its admissions process? One reason is that the tests work. They predict how well students do in college — and this predictive value remains after accounting for students’ high-school average grades and, among other things, socioeconomic status.
Continue reading the entire piece here at The New York Sun
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Robert VerBruggen is a fellow at the Manhattan Institute. Follow him on Twitter here.
This piece originally appeared in The New York Sun
