Why Are Elite Schools So Attached to the SAT?

Apr 18, 2024

Harvard University and the California Institute of Technology recently they would return to requiring SAT and ACT test scores as part of their admissions processes, joining several other elite universities.聽

Starting before the COVID-19 pandemic, universities had test requirements. The pandemic lockdowns and racial justice uprising of 2020 the trend, and soon thousands of institutions had become test-free or test-optional. They included the entire system, which cited research showing that the SAT is biased against women, people of color, and low-income applicants.聽

Harry Feder, executive director of spoke with 大象传媒 Senior Editor Sonali Kolhatkar on 大象传媒 Presents: Rising Up With Sonali about what it means for some Ivy League schools to backtrack on SAT requirements.

Sonali Kolhatkar joined 大象传媒 in summer 2021, building on a long and decorated career in broadcast and print journalism. She is an award-winning multimedia journalist, and host and creator of聽大象传媒 Presents: Rising Up with Sonali, a nationally syndicated television and radio program airing on Free Speech TV and dozens of independent and community radio stations. She is also Senior Correspondent with the Independent Media Institute鈥檚 Economy for All project where she writes a weekly column. She is the author of聽Rising Up: The Power of Narrative in Pursuing Racial Justice聽(2023) and聽Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence聽(2005). Her forthcoming book is called聽Talking About Abolition聽(Seven Stories Press, 2025). Sonali is co-director of the nonprofit group, Afghan Women鈥檚 Mission which she helped to co-found in 2000. She has a Master鈥檚 in Astronomy from the University of Hawai鈥檌, and two undergraduate degrees in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Texas at Austin. Sonali reflects on 鈥淢y Journey From Astrophysicist to Radio Host鈥� in her 2014聽聽of the same name.