Harvard will require Test Scores starting next year

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I mean, obviously. The test optional thing was a weird experiment and there is no evidence that it accomplished anything useful, and some evidence it was genuinely detrimental. Good riddance.

Being good at taking tests is not the most important thing in life and everyone should remind themselves of that. But it turns out that people who do test well, and are able to get very high scores on college preparedness tests, tend to also do best in college, where they will also be expected to regularly take tests. It's okay that not everyone goes to an Ivy, or becomes a lawyer or doctor or academic or MBA or whatever. It's not the only option in life.

Just realize that Harvard isn't going to accept your kids with a 1580 over one with a 1500 based on the SAT alone. They will consider them "the same"/made the cut, and then look at everything else. I don't think requiring tests will have the effect most "high stats" parents want.
Fact is T20 schools only want to see your kid meet a baseline for the testing, then they still want to look at everything else. A 1600 doesn't differentiate your kid from a 1520 kid really.
These schools will still be highly rejective.

Here we go with the backstop position, now that TO is being blown sky high.

In fact, there’s meaningful differentiation between a kid with a 1600 / 36 and another kid with a 1520 / 34. Especially when multiple re-takes and super scoring are involved in the latter.

I'll keep that in mind when I'm next hiring to fill am SAT test taker position

[Anonymous]

Get ready for more to join, even if their data doesn't support it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:yep.
Whatever will the 4/4.6 1390 poor test-taking children of DCUM do?

Remember when a 4.0 and 1400 was an exceptional kid?

4.0 and 1400 has not been truly exceptional since the 1990s

4.0 maybe, but SAT is a bell curve so that hasn't changed much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:test optional was a failed experiment

it wasn't an experiment it was due to testing centers closing during the pandemic

CA schools didn't go TO because of covid.

Am genuinely curious how the UC's are going to respond to the changes. UCLA had almost 145k applicants this year! Cal Berkeley had 125k applicants. Those numbers are... wild.

From what I've read, UC admissions policies are heavily based on their own research and not the whims of politicians. They found they didn't need the SAT after studying the issue.

UChicago has similarly not let politics drive the decision. They went TO in 2018.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you get to take Plagiarism 101 with Claudine Gay once you're accepted?

Harvard is so mockable these days

Claudine Gay is but not Harvard.

Ms. Gay was made a scapegoat. She's still employed at Harvard and still making good money (without the stress).

And your kid will still get rejected.

She was not a scapegoat. She was a sloppy researcher and plagiarist. Unfortunately she handed DEI opponents a proverbial loaded gun.

[Anonymous]

This is a boon for diversity, even with the very real flaws in the tests, and i will die on this hill.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:yep.
Whatever will the 4/4.6 1390 poor test-taking children of DCUM do?

Remember when a 4.0 and 1400 was an exceptional kid?

4.0 and 1400 has not been truly exceptional since the 1990s

4.0 maybe, but SAT is a bell curve so that hasn't changed much.

Look it up. It has been recentered. 1400 now is top 10% of scores, or 90th%ile.
It was 98th%ile back then, equivalent to what 1490-1500 is now.

[Anonymous]

Brown announced that it will require tests a month ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:10 years from now, nobody will care about Claudine Gay. Hell, people still uphold Ivy credentials from the days when it was all feeder kids, legacy, or donors.

Things are changing. Some kids are declining Ivies for state schools. Schools that were deemed safeties are desirable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:test optional was a failed experiment

it wasn't an experiment it was due to testing centers closing during the pandemic

CA schools didn't go TO because of covid.

Am genuinely curious how the UC's are going to respond to the changes. UCLA had almost 145k applicants this year! Cal Berkeley had 125k applicants. Those numbers are... wild.

From what I've read, UC admissions policies are heavily based on their own research and not the whims of politicians. They found they didn't need the SAT after studying the issue.

UChicago has similarly not let politics drive the decision. They went TO in 2018.

Chicago just wants a larger pool of admissible full-pay applicants. Same as Bates. Every TO school with ED2 is pay-to-play to some degree.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:yep.
Whatever will the 4/4.6 1390 poor test-taking children of DCUM do?

Remember when a 4.0 and 1400 was an exceptional kid?

4.0 and 1400 has not been truly exceptional since the 1990s

4.0 maybe, but SAT is a bell curve so that hasn't changed much.

The SAT has completely changed from the 90s. Back then there was a penalty for wrong answers. So achieving a 1400 was exceptional. A 1500 was unheard of. The removal of the penalty has increased average scores by 150 points. (And if you want to know WHY they did this, bc the College Board is a business and they were competing with ACT which was deemed easier and they were losing kids to the ACT exam. All google-able. Educate yourself.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Brown announced that it will require tests a month ago.

Yes and there was a thread on that when it happened. What’s your point?

[Anonymous]

I hope that means that the average test scores for solid (not Ivy) schools normalize a bit. 1300-1500 are good scores for many schools but kids TO bc the average is now 1500+.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you get to take Plagiarism 101 with Claudine Gay once you're accepted?

Harvard is so mockable these days

Claudine Gay is but not Harvard.

Ms. Gay was made a scapegoat. She's still employed at Harvard and still making good money (without the stress).

And your kid will still get rejected.

She was not a scapegoat. She was a sloppy researcher and plagiarist. Unfortunately she handed DEI opponents a proverbial loaded gun.

Christopher Rufo, is that you?

[Anonymous]

Finally some common sense. The hyperinflated GPAs will now have a test score to go with it.