Dive Transient:
- Cornell College will as soon as once more require standardized take a look at scores for college kids searching for undergraduate admission for fall 2026, making it the most recent Ivy League school to shed its test-optional coverage.
- The college will stay test-optional for candidates searching for admission for fall 2025, based on a launch Monday, although Cornell inspired college students to nonetheless submit SAT or ACT scores.
- Like different high-profile faculties that revived testing necessities, Cornell cited issues that some college students had been withholding scores that might have benefitted their functions. The college additionally referenced inside knowledge exhibiting that admitted college students who included their take a look at scores had “considerably stronger GPAs” at Cornell in comparison with those that did not.
Dive Perception:
Cornell joins a rising listing of Ivy League establishments which have lately revived their standardized testing necessities, with Brown College, Dartmouth School, Harvard College and Yale College all making comparable strikes.
Columbia College, Princeton College and the College of Pennsylvania — the opposite three establishments within the Ivy League — have to date retained their test-optional insurance policies. And greater than 2,000 four-year faculties aren’t requiring ACT or SAT scores for college kids searching for to enroll this fall, based on a tally from FairTest, which advocates for restricted makes use of of standardized testing.
A Cornell process power — composed of eight college members and directors — examined the influence of the college shedding testing necessities in response to the coronavirus pandemic. 5 of Cornell’s undergraduate faculties had switched to test-optional insurance policies, whereas the college’s different three faculties had gone test-free, which means admissions officers don’t overview scores even when college students submit them.
In keeping with the duty power’s seven-page report, their members discovered no “clear indication” that the test-optional coverage elevated variety amongst first-year college students.
The college did see modest positive aspects in underrepresented college students between the autumn 2020 cohort, which needed to submit take a look at scores, and subsequent cohorts. However these developments have been in play for a number of years, the duty power stated.
In addition they discovered that candidates who supplied examination scores to Cornell’s test-optional faculties had been considerably extra more likely to be admitted. Just 24% of candidates submitted scores for undergraduate admission in fall 2023. However greater than 42% of accepted college students despatched of their examination outcomes.
The duty power voiced issues that college students had been withholding scores that might assist their functions.
“Learn with an appreciation for context, an applicant with a take a look at rating that could be under the typical for Cornell college students however that’s nicely above common for his or her highschool could also be thought-about a fascinating admit,” they wrote. “Check scores allow these sorts of choices.”
