The covid-19 pandemic has caused havoc throughout society.
The manner that organisations and businesses operate had to change. Customers also needed to adjust.
This has forced educational institutions like schools, universities, and colleges to reconsider how they run their operations in order to accommodate a generation of students that had to learn how to do everything electronically.
Universities, and in particular selective institutions, have decided to make the SAT and ACT admission examinations optional for undergraduates in response to these new challenges.
In essence, these exams—whose goal is to gauge pupils’ intellectual proficiency in English and math—are no longer required. The decision to submit them or not is up to the candidates. Unlike in the past, not submitting them does not automatically exclude you.
A New Policy at Columbia University
Low-scoring applicants were previously automatically disqualified by the SAT and ACT. They played a significant role in the applicant selection process at prestigious universities.
While proponents of these tests contend that they enable the selection of the finest candidates, their detractors contend that they unfairly favour applicants from privileged backgrounds who have access to greater testing preparation. So, these tests could be viewed as a roadblock to the
access to premium institutions for kids from underprivileged economic backgrounds, such as Black and Latino minorities.
Some colleges have made the submission of the SAT and ACT admission tests optional permanently after three years of the pandemic. The decision to supply them or not is now up to the applicants. This does not necessarily give those who furnish them an advantage over those who choose not to.
In order to be considered for admission to the esteemed Columbia University in New York, prospective undergraduate students will no longer be required to complete these standardised tests.
The school stated in a statement that “the holistic and contextual applicant assessment process…is built in the concept that students are dynamic, multifaceted individuals who cannot be defined by any one aspect.”
“Our examination is purposeful and nuanced — honouring many origins, voices, and experiences — to best determine an applicant’s appropriateness for admission and potential to succeed in our curriculum and community, and to promote access to our educational opportunities,” the statement reads.
The suspension of these exams is still only temporary for the other Ivy League institutions, including Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Dartmouth, Cornell, and Brown.
Yet, many proponents of standardised testing have expressed their displeasure with Columbia’s choice on social media. Elon Musk, the wealthy CEO of Tesla (TSLA) – Get Free Report, thinks that this has turned into a significant issue in colleges.
Musk Criticizes Columbia’s Choice
The king of technology was responding to a tweet from renowned VC Marc Andreessen. Andreessen concurred in the tweet.
in agreement with a Twitter user who claimed that Columbia’s decision was a win for Affirmative Action in selective universities at the expense of meritocracy. The user has absorbed the conservative narrative that every time a choice is taken to promote more equity among people from different socioeconomic backgrounds, White people are unfairly being disadvantaged.
The US elite system as a whole has abandoned merit in favour of an affirmative action approach. No test results for college, no LSAT for law school, and shortly no MCAT for medical school,” the user said in reference to tests that Columbia did not consider while making its choice.
Andreessen answered, “Sure.
On March 4, Musk said, “Very few Americans appear to understand the gravity of the problem.