Is Standardized Testing Becoming Important Again at College Admissions?
This Blog post’s data tables can be found on the Substack email post (link)
Students & Parents,
Every quarter, I am invited to do an educational webinar with my college consulting industry colleague Jack Delehey on the state of college admissions and the standardized testing landscape. In the most recent webinar, we discussed a few key trends with SAT/ACT standardized testing which I’ll showcase below with data tables.
Jack shared his insight that there is a growing trend that schools are increasing the importance of the SAT in admissions. Let’s take a look at some data points from both nationally ranked colleges like Northeastern University and Ivy League colleges like Princeton.
Data Table 1: Admission Data from a Nationally Ranked College - Northeastern University’s Common Data Set Files
Every University has a scorecard on how they view the relative importance of each item within a student’s application. We can see here that Northeastern ranks Rigor, Grades, SAT Scores, Essay, and Recommendations to be “Very Important.” It is important to note that they rated standardized test scores to be “Very Important” even though they are technically test-optional.
Most important factors at Northeastern? Class Rigor, GPA, SATs, Essay, and Recommendations. Looking further into the data, we can see that incoming Freshman to Northeastern are typically in the top-tenth of the high school graduating class.
The overwhelming majority of them are in the top quarter of their graduating class.
Because of the fierce competition, students who are successful in being admitted at Northeastern University are typically reporting scores of 700+ on both Math and English.
Although Northeastern University is only one data point within the admissions landscape, one conclusion that we can definitely make is that being in the Top Tenth of your class along with a 1400+ on the SAT gives you a Huge Boost in admissions. If a student is not in the top tenth but rather in the top quarter (still very good), the data suggests that going test optional is likely to be a relative disadvantage.
Data Table 2: Admission Data from an Ivy League School - Princeton University’s Common Data Set Files
Ivy League University Princeton is much more direct about their view on standardized testing. Even though Princeton is technically “test optional”, see here below that 85% of their admitted class submitted SAT and ACT scores. 60% of the admitted incoming class submitted the SAT and 25% submitted the ACT, for a total of 85%.
Only 15% of students of the incoming class who were admitted to Princeton went test optional.
The difference though when it comes to Ivy League schools such as Princeton is that they rate Extracurriculars, Talent, and Character to be “Very Important” in their admission criteria. This broad theme of data shown above suggests that within nationally ranked Universities (ex-Ivy League), having very strong academic grades and high SAT scores put you in the driver’s seat when it comes to admissions. Assuming your extracurricular profile is “good enough.”
At the Ivy League tier, applicants will likely need to demonstrate something special and unique that is memorable in the admissions process. Something that is even more impressive than being in the top tenth of your class and having a 1400-1500+ SAT score.
Talk to my team at Tigerway directly to discuss how our private coaches can help you with your SAT Scores (and Grades) as well as shaping your college profile to best stand out. We do have a waitlist for some of our coaches. Thank you for your patience.
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