Yale joins Dartmouth in requiring test scores

Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale.

Following the lead of Dartmouth, Yale University announced that it will return to requiring standardized test scores for all applicants in the entering class of 2025. Under the new “test-flexible” policy, Yale applicants may choose to submit SAT, ACT, Advanced Placement (AP), or International Baccalaureate (IB) scores. In an interview posted on Yale’s website, Dean of Undergraduate Admissions and Financial Aid Jeremiah Quinlan noted that test scores “are the single greatest predictor of a student’s performance in Yale courses in every model we have constructed” but would be considered in the context of the applicant’s background.

In essence, Yale is saying the same thing that Dartmouth did: in a test-optional world, underprivileged students tend not to submit scores that are below the college’s published median, even though selective colleges like Yale do not hold those applicants to that standard and might in fact be impressed with those slightly lower scores. Fair enough. But one has to think that Yale (and Dartmouth) may also be disappointed in the performance of certain test-optional applicants in prior classes and may see this policy as a way to replace some of those underperforming students with others from a similar background that can produce higher test scores. After all, in order accept these “near-miss” applicants, someone else must be left out of the class. Unless Yale intends to increase the proportion of underprivileged students at the expense of wealthier students (unlikely), some existing underprivileged students would presumably need to lose their spots to facilitate acceptance of the near-miss crowd.

For most applicants, the changes are unlikely to have a major impact. Absent some other very compelling evidence of academic strength, students from higher-resourced backgrounds likely needed high test scores to be competitive for Yale anyway.