Dropping the SAT Essay

Yale follows Harvard in ending requirement that students complete portion that is writing of or ACT. University of north park makes similar move, leaving only 25 colleges because of the requirement. More colleges go test optional.

Yale University last week notified counselors who make use of twelfth grade students that the university will no more require applicants to accomplish the SAT essay or even the ACT writing test.

A memo Yale provided for counselors said the university wished to make the application process easier on those that make the SAT or ACT during school hours. Those administrations frequently try not to give students time for the writing test, so students had to join up for the test another time to complete the writing test.

The move comes three months after Harvard University announced that it was making the essay that is SAT ACT writing test optional. Harvard’s announcement noted that its applicants submit essays as an element of their applications, so writing remains a part that is crucial of application process.

As the moves by institutions such as for example Harvard and Yale capture attention, they reflect a far more disinclination that is general of leaders toward the writing tests for the SAT and ACT. The Princeton Review, which tracks how many colleges require the test, now identifies only 25 institutions that do so. People with already dropped the requirement include Columbia and Cornell Universities, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and also the University of Pennsylvania.

The University of San Diego also recently announced it can no longer require the SAT essay or ACT writing test. Stephen Pultz, assistant vice president for enrollment management at San Diego, said via email that ”we decided the writing sections are not reliable measures for write my paper placement purposes, that will be exactly how we originally envisioned their use. We’ve had better success making use of the other parts of the exams, Advanced Placement exams, and senior school curriculum and grades.”

The College Board first started offering an essay in the SAT in 2005. But many writing experts were highly critical of this format, noting among other things so it did not judge whether statements were factually correct. Les Perelman, an MIT writing professor, famously coached students on how to write ludicrous essays that could receive scores that are high.

In 2014, the faculty Board announced revisions to the SAT

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With substantial changes towards the essay, including the utilization of writing passages to force test takers to cite evidence for opinions within their essays.

Generally, critics of the first type of the writing test agreed that the new version was better, however some continued to question if the writing test had enough value to justify leading students to get ready for and take it. Some advocates for the essay hoped the noticeable changes would lead more colleges to rely on it included in the admissions process. But the news from Harvard and Yale, additionally the lack of fascination with adding the writing test as a requirement, suggests that it is not happening.

On its blog, Princeton Review said after Harvard’s decision that the essays should really be eliminated from the SAT and ACT. While they are theoretically optional, many students feel pressure to take them (and get ready for them), even though a very small amount of colleges actually use the scores.

”While over 70 percent of students using the SAT and more than 50 percent taking the ACT opt in to the essay, not really 2 percent of colleges require an essay score,” the blog post says. ”Students and taxpayers are sending tens of millions of dollars into the College Board’s and ACT’s coffers and don’t seem to be getting anything out of it except that one more source of anxiety in terms of college applications. It is time for the SAT and ACT essays to go.”

While Yale still requires applicants to take either the SAT or ACT for the nonwriting areas of the exams, more colleges continue steadily to announce that they are going test optional. One of the colleges in recent weeks announcing these policies are Concordia University (St. Paul), Prescott College and Rider University.