In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, many universities exempted students from taking the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) or the American College Test (ACT) in 2020. The SAT and ACT are both standardized tests students take in high school that test subjects such as math, reading, science, and writing. Since 2020, most universities have remained test-optional, meaning high school students can choose to take the SAT/ACT, or not. The use of artificial intelligence (AI) to write student essays as part of the application process has proliferated recently and raised concerns for admissions officers. This article will examine the recent trends in the college admissions process and discuss why universities have chosen to change their standardized tests and essay policies.
Schools Are Reinstating Standardized Tests
Approximately 4% of colleges have reinstated the SAT and ACT. The reason a small percentage of universities have reimplemented their SAT/ACT requirements is because studies show that students’ grade Point Averages (GPAs) are not accurate indicators of how a student will perform in college. This problem stems from high schools engaging in grade inflation; students often receive marks higher than what they deserve.
To better evaluate which applicant will succeed in college, educators believe having a student’s standardized test scores can help make that determination. A 2024 study by Opportunities Insight concluded that students who score high on the SAT/ACT are more likely to have a higher college GPA. It is research like this, and internal studies universities have completed that have led them to the decision to bring back standardized testing.
University spokespersons have frequently stated that having standardized test scores allows them to receive applicants from diverse communities and backgrounds. They claim that by requiring test scores, schools can better understand their applicants. They will take two students from the same school that has an average SAT/ACT score and assume the higher scoring student can better adapt and thrive in their environment compared to a lower scoring student. However, the research to back up their claims that standardized tests lead to more diversity varies significantly. Students in low-income schools may not receive the same resources and test preparation that wealthy schools do. This results in score disparities that discourage students from poorly funded schools from applying to universities that require standardized tests in the first place.
Some Schools Have Chosen to Remain Test-Optional
While the implementation of standardized tests is slowly on the rise, many universities have not changed their application requirements since 2020. As of 2023, about 83% of four-year colleges do not require students to submit standardized tests. This is equivalent to approximately 1,800 colleges. Many school administrators believe the SAT/ACT just proves a student is a good test taker and cannot inform a school of other qualities an applicant may have. To be accessible to people of different backgrounds and to make college more appealing to all students, schools are using test-optional standards as a solution. Students are not completely discouraged from submitting their test scores when applying to test-optional schools. By submitting the scores, students might have a better chance at being awarded a scholarship. The school views the SAT/ACT scores as one of many factors towards admission.
With the recent Supreme Court decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which ended race-based affirmative action, colleges are looking to appeal to students of all nationalities and economic backgrounds. Not requiring standardized test scores would likely broaden the candidate pool.
The Classic Learning Test
The Classic Learning Test (CLT) is an alternative to the SAT/ACT that over 250 colleges have chosen to accept in lieu of the SAT/ACT. The CLT focuses on classical education by emphasizing reading comprehension, grammar, critical thinking skills, and mathematics. The exam is significantly shorter than the SAT/ACT in both time and the number of questions. There are colleges that have not partnered with CLT, but will still consider a student’s CLT scores in light of many schools going test-optional.
While it seems to be on the rise in a certain number of states and schools, some experts and university educators have expressed concerns with the CLT. They claim that the test is too new, and it does not have enough evidence to support final college admissions decisions. Research on how the exam compares to traditional standardized exams needs to be done and made public. Some critics argue that there is not sufficient empirical evidence that the exam is of the same quality and caliber as the SAT and ACT.
Artificial Intelligence and its Effect on Personal Essays
Colleges take into consideration other factors besides exam scores when reviewing applications from prospective students. A personal essay is a way a college can get to know an applicant beyond their grades and can set an applicant apart from the rest. A college essay is an original piece of writing that reflects the life of the student applying, so it is the most personal piece of the application.
Recently colleges have been struggling to decipher if the essay was written by an actual student or by artificial intelligence (AI). AI tries to simulate human intelligence using machinery, and it can produce large amounts of information in seconds. With websites such as ChatGPT, GoogleAI, and many more, all a student needs to do is enter a topic into the generator, and a whole essay will be created for them. Students are speaking to chatbots that imitate conversations with humans. They are copying and pasting college essay prompts into the chatbot, or taking essays from students accepted in top universities, and directing AI to analyze the positive aspects of the essays so it can reproduce something similar. These essays are impersonal and do not consider the student’s individuality; AI produces generic essays about topics with no personalization or emotions. Many times, the information the AI chatbots produce can be incorrect, or not true at all.
Preventing students from using AI is difficult since many AI websites are free on the internet. Educators have tried to create their own AI-generated essays by imputing facts into chatbots about character traits they think particular students may have. This has helped admissions officers detect similar features among AI-generated essays. AI uses common phrases and sentence styles that are unique to AI-generators. Also, AI uses inconsistent writing styles, and it offers no personal touch or anecdotal elements to an essay that college admissions officers enjoy reading.
Colleges are using their own advanced technology to determine what is AI-generated. This technology can detect plagiarism by comparing the essay to already existing AI-generated essays, it analyzes word choices and sentence structures that are commonly produced by AI, and it looks for sudden changes in tone and topic within the essay.
Few universities have set guidelines or policies on how AI should be used by students applying to their school, and the colleges that have set policies, vary from each other. Some schools have an outright ban on the use of AI, while other colleges advise students to use it as an editing tool or to help them brainstorm essay topics. The consensus seems to be that you cannot ban a high school student from using AI since it is a new and evolving technology that students can access, with just a press of a button.
Legacies in the Admissions Process
Legacy admissions is the practice of universities giving special preference to applicants who are related to an alumnus during the admissions process. This practice has recently come under fire as an unfair method because it prioritizes wealthy students who have connections to the school through a relative. States such as New York, Connecticut, and California have pushed to ban this process in colleges altogether and Colorado has banned it since 2021. Virginia just recently banned legacy admissions in March 2024. In light of the Supreme Court’s decision to end race based affirmative action, colleges are trying to expand access to education by discontinuing legacy preferences because they believe it hinders those who are of different socioeconomic and racial statuses from attending college.
On a federal level, U.S. Senators have introduced the Merit-Based Educational Reforms and Institutional Transparency Act (MERIT) into Congress in November 2023. The aim of this bill is to end the practice of legacy admissions and amend the Higher Education Act. This proposed standard of preventing universities from giving preferential treatment does not completely inhibit a university from considering a student’s genuine interest in attending the school. The main reason this is an issue is because in 2020, about 50% of universities used preferential treatment in evaluating legacy applicants. According to Future Education, there was an increase from 2018 when the percentage of universities was 42%.
Universities argue that by accepting legacy applicants, colleges can better secure donors and maintain donor relationships. However, it seems this advantage to universities is not as important as ending legacy admissions. While MERIT has yet to be passed by Congress, individual states are taking affirmative steps to end legacy admissions in their own public universities.
Takeaway
It is clear that the college application process has evolved in the last several years due to the changing views on standardized tests, legacy admissions, and the prevalence of AI. With recent developments in the Supreme Court, it is more likely that schools will remain test optional, and the trend of bringing back the SAT/ACT may be short lived. The CLT is an up-and-coming exam, but it has caused some experts to be skeptical of its results. In the area of personal essays, colleges are mindful of AI and are taking steps to detect AI-generated essays. As for legacies, a number of states and universities have demonstrated a rejection of this admissions process, with a federal bill entered proposing an outright ban. The leadership at universities are studying the effects of standardized tests, alternative exams, legacy admissions, and AI, and they are changing their admission policies to adapt to that knowledge.