Nearly 2,000 U.S. colleges and universities have made the SAT and ACT optional for admission. However, Dartmouth University recently announced that it is reinstating the requirement of submitting ACT and SAT scores for admission. The renewed requirement will begin for the class of 2029.
Dartmouth’s decision to reinstate standardized testing requirements is going against the grain. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of schools ditching the standardized tests has increased to 1,900. So far, more than 80% of four-year schools no longer require the assessments, according to Inside Higher Ed .
However, schools had already started to move away from standardized tests prior to the pandemic over concerns of inequities for students in historically marginalized communities. Racial inequity concerns combined with testing centers closing during the pandemic prompted the number of schools scrapping the ACT and SAT to surge.
Dartmouth , like many other schools, suspended the ACT and SAT exams in June of 2020, during the height of COVID. University officials said at the time, the “test optional” policy was a “short-term practice rather than an indefinite policy.”