Columbia Becomes First Ivy League School to Ditch Standardized-Test Requirement
Columbia University announced that it no longer would require standardized tests including the SAT and ACT for incoming undergraduate students. The move makes Columbia the first Ivy League college to embrace the new approach.
“We have designed our application to afford the greatest possible opportunity and flexibility for students to represent themselves fully and showcase their academic talents, interests and goals. Standardized testing is not a required component of our application,” the school wrote in an announcement released Wednesday.
Although Columbia had dropped the requirement for 2020-2021 academic year applicants due to Covid-19 — in line with other Ivy League schools such as Cornell, Harvard, Dartmouth, Brown, Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania — none of the schools had yet to make an official statement permanently embracing “test-optional” admissions.
“The submission of test results will be viewed only as one additional piece of information among the many factors that we will consider in our continued practice of a holistic and contextual review process,” the New York–based school said.
There has been a growing movement across American higher education in recent years to remove standardized testing from the application process due to concerns that it might be undermining racial diversity.
The University of California system eliminated both the SAT and ACT tests from admissions decisions across its ten schools, including Berkeley, nearly two years ago.
“Real inequities exist in American education, and they are reflected in every measure of academic achievement, including the SAT,” a senior communications director for the College Board said in a statement to the New York Times back in 2021. “The SAT itself is not a racist instrument. Every question is rigorously reviewed for evidence of bias and any question that could favor one group over another is discarded.”
In a similar vein, the Supreme Court is currently hearing a case in which Asian-American applicants to Harvard College allege that they were unfairly discriminated against because subjective criteria were used in the decision-making process including attributes such as “likability, courage, and kindness,” the Times reported. The plaintiffs in Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College believe that an emphasis on standardized tests would remove anti-Asian biases.
Compared to last year’s enrollment, the number of students of color attending Columbia increased by 4 percent this year.
