Must Know – SAT/ACT for admissions 2023-2024?
by Tony T.
After 3 years of unstable testing registration and proctored test chaos, College Board and its managed SAT have been both in doubt. As a result, more and more higher education institutes have adopted a test-optional policy, which means applicants are not required to submit any standardized test, such as SAT or ACT, to apply to colleges. Ivy League and almost all selective colleges are in the list of test-optional admissions.
University of California goes even further. All 9 campuses of UC system are in a 5-year moratorium to exclude the standardized tests from admission requirements up to the Year of 2025. Even you score a 1600 on SAT, it won’t impact your UC admission results according to the policy. You may still submit an SAT or ACT score, but it will only be used to fulfill the minimum requirement and will be used for the class placement after enrollment. All 23 CSU campuses also follow this moratorium excluding the SAT/ACT requirement. UC/CSU will pursue developing their own test for college admission purpose after 2025.
One year ago in March 2022, MIT announced that it would reinstate the standardized test requirement in its admissions. Here is the statement: “In short: Our research has shown that, in most cases, we cannot reliably predict students will do well at MIT unless we consider standardized test results alongside grades, coursework, and other factors. These findings are statistically robust and stable over time and hold when you control for socioeconomic factors and look across demographic groups. And the math component of the testing turns out to be most important.”
Georgia Tech states that “All first-year applicants must submit results of the SAT and/or the ACT in order to be considered for admission, per University System of Georgia requirements. Keep in mind that in our holistic review process, tests are only one of many factors used to make admission decisions.”
Most colleges will still not require SAT or ACT in their admissions for the 2023-2024 cycle, but will consider them if submitted. As a fact, from top tier colleges published admission data, over 50% admitted students submitted SAT scores and about 20-30% of admitted students submitted ACT scores for the Fall 2021 enrollments.
IvyBoost advises students to check out each school in their college list for the updated admission requirement on SAT/ACT. For the graduation class of 2024, you may want to take SAT or ACT if you are going to apply for more colleges other than UC/CSU, particularly for STEM majors and STEM oriented colleges.