Harvard University made headlines last April for its decision to again require applicants to submit SAT or ACT scores for consideration in undergraduate admissions after previously adopting a “test-optional” approach, designed to make admissions equitable for students whose access to standardized testing had been inhibited by the pandemic.
Harvard’s return to mandating the submission of standardized test scores came at a pivotal moment in higher education: elite universities like Yale, Brown, Dartmouth, MIT and Caltech had all announced a return to mandatory test submissions. For America’s top undergraduate institutions, the test-optional wave had come to a striking halt.
While Harvard’s decision drew attention from media outlets and higher education experts, recent data from the Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics reveals that colleges and universities have been slow to return to requiring undergraduate applicants to submit standardized test scores.
Since 2020, LSU has remained test-optional. According to the university’s website, the policy is a reflection of LSU’s commitment to “full-file comprehensive review” — a term many higher education experts have dubbed “holistic review.”
In addition to keeping LSU in line with the higher education zeitgeist, the admissions office’s decision to remain test-optional has been refreshing to some students on campus.
“I think LSU should stick with the test-optional approach,” said kinesiology senior Lauren Dooley.
When asked whether she thought standardized tests accurately represented applicants’ ability to succeed in college, Dooley responded emphatically in the negative. “Absolutely not. I don’t think it’s fair to reduce a student’s entire high school career to one test.”
A better metric, Dooley suggested, is a student’s grade point average.
“I think GPA is a better way to measure a student’s success,” Dooley said. “It’s the culmination of years of hard work. To get a good GPA, you have to put in the work in every class, every day. Doing well on the ACT or the SAT is just one day.”
Another common critique levied by opponents of standardized tests is that they exacerbate inequality.
“Some schools are better than others at educating their students just because they have different systems in place,” said kinesiology junior Paige Broussard. “Schools with less funding would probably do less well on standardized tests. Where I went to high school, teachers gave us ACT prep within class. Some schools don’t have that.”
Still, Broussard maintained that students who work hard to do well on standardized tests deserve to have their hard work recognized in admissions.
“I don’t see a problem with LSU staying test-optional,” she explained. “If a student decided to put in the effort to take a standardized test because they had the opportunity to do so, there’s no reason for LSU to not evaluate it. That would be a waste of their time and money.”
Echoing Dooley and Broussard’s concerns, animal science junior Riley Hebert contends that LSU should do away with standardized testing, foregoing the test-optional approach in favor of not evaluating standardized tests at all.
“Standardized tests aren’t fair. Some students are good test-takers and some are not,” Hebert said. “If standardized tests only work for some students, why have them at all?”
As of 2023, 618 colleges and universities identified as “test-blind,” meaning that they did not allow students to submit SAT and ACT scores in their undergraduate applications.
Despite some LSU students’ criticism of standardized testing, LSU shows no signs of changing its official admissions policy.
