常青藤顶尖名校2022年秋季申请提供“考试可选”

英文原文

Top Schools in the Ivy League are Test Optional for Fall 2022 Application Cycle

Abstract:  Over 1200 colleges and universities in the U.S. are test optional for the Fall 2022 cycle, reducing standardized testing pressures for current high school juniors who will submit applications for college this upcoming fall.  Of note, Harvard, Cornell, the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia have indicated they will be conducting holistic reviews of college applications.

Factors Leading to Test Optional Policies

Conversations amongst college counselors had long since begun as it relates to standardized testing but most certainly, the global pandemic rushed such changes to the forefront.  Though discussions surrounding holistic evaluation were certainly occurring prior to COVID-19, one would be hard pressed to say that any top tier institution was ready to begin to evaluate applications without standardized test scores as soon as 2020.

The National Association for College Admission Counseling has long advocated against the use of standardized tests to determine college admission.  Citing inequity and pressures placed on high schoolers by standardized testing, many of its members believe that students are not granted the same level of access to testing (and test prep) due to financial circumstances as well as factors related to race.  With the global pandemic and many testing centers being closed, an ideal situation was created for NACAC to strongly lobby schools to become test optional, if only for practical safety reasons. Their 2020 report further pointed to cost to students, admissions exams taking priority over student health, and loss of tuition (for schools that continue to insist on test scores).  Stating, “The higher education sector must create an environment whereby all students, regardless of race, ethnicity, country of origin, or country of residence, are provided with equal access to educational opportunity,” their most seemingly logical conclusion is to reduce the expectations surrounding standardized testing.

Harvard College

In January 2021, Harvard College joined Columbia, Cornell and the University of Pennsylvania in announcing that they will continue to be test optional for the Fall 2022 application season.  Citing both COVID-19 restrictions and their ‘whole person’ evaluation process, Harvard claims that while they consider community involvement,employment and family support as accomplishments that are used to determine admission,  they continue to then state that should COVID-19 prevent such involvements, a student will not be disadvantaged in the admission process.  Furthermore, they claim that students without standardized testing will not be disadvantaged and share, “…applications will be considered on the basis of what they have presented, and they are encouraged to send whatever materials they believe would convey their accomplishments in secondary school and their promise for the future”.    It is initially tempting  to applaud their extraordinary understanding of the difficulty in finding safe testing sites during a pandemic and their commitment to holistic application reviews.  After all, their announcement seems to indicate that they welcome anyone–and everyone–to apply.

However, this announcement about admissions is amorphous and confusing, with no real concrete indicators about what truly matters to them for admission.  So what they seem to be saying is: “You will not lose your chance at admission if you do not have standardized test scores and you will not lose your chance at admission if COVID prevents you from doing things outside of class”….which leads us to wonder, how will they determine admission if they say that you will not lose your chance if you are not involved in extracurricular activities and have no test scores?

Harvard’s announcement itself left little clues to what criteria and rubric the school will use.  As an Asian thinking about Harvard admissions, one cannot help but reflect the discrimination case which was thrown out;  there must have been some ‘kernel of truth’ for the case to have risen so high in the judicial system, after all.  One hopes that it would be safe for applicants in the next admission to assume that Harvard will take into account the same factors that its peer institutions will.  Let’s take a look at one.

Cornell

Cornell’s announcement earlier in the week was a bit more clear and one might use it as a guide to consider what other top tier universities will evaluate when selecting their Fall 2022 freshman class.  Offering applicants much more guidance, they cite the importance of high achievement in challenging classes, pursuit of other learning experiences, other sorts of testing, the strength and commitment a student places in the application itself (in other words, how authentic and well written — plus one would assume original — essays are), and letters of recommendation. While test optional, four Cornell colleges will continue to review test scores if they receive the (Arts and Sciences, Engineering, Human Ecology, and Industrial & Labor Relations).  Thus, while standardized tests are not required, submitting them can still assist your application if you tend to test well.  If Cornell looks at two applications that are comparable in all areas but one does not have an SAT score whereas one does (and it is a high score), the logical conclusion is that the latter student is more likely to be admitted. Thus, for Cornell at least, take the SAT/ACT if you are applying for the four colleges that will add your high test score to your application’s review.

Summary

Much like the Fall 2021 admission cycle, we should expect that applications for the Fall 2022 cycle will increase.  Underpreparedness for the increased applications due to test optional requirements in the Ivy League have led to an unprecedented delay in the admissions decision release date; admissions decisions for Fall 2021 will be released nearly two weeks later than previous years (in case you missed it, Ivy Day 2021 will be April 6).

For Fall 2022, review application requirements carefully– what does test optional mean for each school?  Test optional is not test blind, and as seen above in the case of Cornell, sure you can avoid submitting a test score but if you have a good one, it is to your advantage to submit it if you are applying to one of the four colleges that will still consider it for admission. And of course, authentic, well written, uniquely genuine essays are going to be critical for applications so it is important to have expert editors support your writing process.