Yale University announced late last month that it will once again require applicants to submit scores for standardized tests like the SAT as part of its admissions process.
The “test optional” system” was largely made in response to barriers created by the COVID-19 pandemic but were also informed by a longstanding belief among some experts that standardized tests perpetuate racial and economic inequality.
Yale is one of only a few elite colleges, along with Dartmouth University and MIT, to have reinstated its testing requirement. In all three cases, school administrators said their research found that the test-optional policy made their student bodies less diverse—not more.
