by Jed Applerouth, PhD on June 11, 2018 in Admissions, Jed stated

The SAT and ACT essays are actually hanging with a thread and tend to be most most most likely on the solution. The Ivy League is abandoning the essay, and without its critical help, there is certainly chance that is little SAT or ACT essays will remain appropriate within the domain of university admissions.

Once the Redesigned SAT arrived in March 2016 using its significantly overhauled essay, brought in straight through the AP Language and Composition research Prompt , everybody in the training room joined a time period of waiting.Will it is a robust predictor of freshman grades or at the very least freshman English grades? There clearly was absolutely nothing to do but wait to check out just what the info would expose.

Once the redesigned SAT and ACT essays were announced, many universities in the united states, including Ivy League organizations such as for example Columbia, Cornell, and Penn , do not need them for admissions. Penn’s manager of admissions, Eric Furda, cited the poor predictive energy of the” that is“old essay since the rationale for dropping the essay need for both tests. But a quantity of admissions offices desired to run their analyses that are own the revamped SAT and ACT essays before carefully deciding. They’d need the essays of the pupils, permitting them to build a robust dataset. Analysis with this information would need to hold back until springtime 2018, whenever freshman grades when it comes to class that is inaugural be accessible.

A far better predictor, but wouldn’t it be good sufficient?

On its face, the redesigned SAT essay appeared as if a far greater predictor of university performance compared to the much maligned SAT essay of 2005-2015. The old SAT essay allowed pupils to create up facts whole-cloth, which seemed misaligned with college-level writing and analysis. The school Board went along to its AP cabinet to get a replacement essay, and selected the AP Language complimentary Response Question 2. This essay will be a fitness in careful reading, critical reasoning, and writing.

An AP essay would clearly be a far more robust predictor of freshman grades, specially as numerous universities and colleges college that is grant for high AP Language performance. If an AP rating correlates favorably with university grades, would an essay pulled straight from an AP exam maybe maybe not yield a comparable correlation? Due to the fact university Board went to great lengths to enhance its essay, the ACT, Inc. reacted with a greater essay of the very own, enhancing the amount of perspectives students had to critically assess to get a higher score. This redesigned ACT essay additionally seemed an improvement that is significant the main one it replaced.

Spring 2018: the start of the conclusion

2 yrs following the first redesigned SAT essays were administered, much talked about universities began to abandon their SAT and ACT essay demands, however constantly because of problems with the essays’ credibility.

March 18, 2018: Harvard falls the essay requirement

Harvard announced it absolutely was eliminating the SAT and ACT essay requirement, maybe not on account of problems with val > College spokesperson Rachael Dane announced “Harvard encourage the ACT/SAT with or without composing, you start with the Class of 2023…This modification will add a component that is additional the comprehensive outreach associated with Harvard school funding Initiative (HFAI), which seeks outstanding pupils from all financial backgrounds.”