Many Major Colleges Now Dropping Essay Test For Admission

Princeton, Stanford are most recent schools to drop the writing portion of SAT and ACT.

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In 2005, the SAT and ACT essay tests became a way to assess the writing chops of college-bond students under the pressure of the clock. But now, many colleges are giving up on the exams, with the consensus forming in higher education that the tests are an afterthought, even though hundreds of thousands of high school students still take them every year. Princeton and Stanford universities last week became the latest to end the mandate, with Dartmouth College and Harvard and Yale universities having already dropped the tests, reports the Washington Post. 

The schools are dropping the requirement because they don’t want essay testing to drive applicants away. Other schools have resisted requiring the essays because they don’t think they reveal that much. Fewer than 25 schools now require the essay scores, reports the Post. Brown University is the sole holdout in the Ivy League. Nine schools in the University of California system require them.

“I guarantee you it’s on the way out entirely,” said Charles Deacon, dean of admissions at Georgetown University, according to the Post. 

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