Grade Inflation is Real, and Some Colleges are Returning to Requiring Testing - Sharpen Your Pencils
High school grades have been on a steady march upward throughout most of our lifetimes. In recent years, though, grade inflation has reached a tipping point where the reality is that even an A average is not a differentiating factor. Grade inflation is real. According to the Higher Education Research Institute’s Freshman Survey in 2020, 68.10% of first-year students at 4-year universities had an A or A- average in high school.
I suspect the pandemic has only made grade inflation worse. My colleague Brian Eufinger of Edison Prep just recorded a great podcast with Lisa Marker Robbins of Flourish Coaching, “Will Grade Inflation Hurt Your Teen?” Try to listen if you can.
Earlier this month, when we were at the IECA National Fall Conference, many admissions directors confirmed that grade inflation is real.
The director of admissions at Cal Tech mentioned that today’s 4.0 GPA is not the same as a Pre-Covid 4.0. This has made the school profile (which high school counselors should attach to every submitted college application) all the more critical. You can usually find your child’s school profile on the high school’s counseling page or by Googling it.
The admissions directors also mentioned that students have some fundamental gaps in their learning. Check out this article from the New York Times. This is going to be affecting our students for a long time. The University of San Diego (who is test blind) has expanded tutoring services and invited all first-year students to campus a week early, at the college’s expense, for Science Lab boot camps because the students probably missed that in high school.
Colleges have COVID grade inflation too, and although students have learned less these past few years, retention rates have not dropped. Many students are staying in college, and most colleges are doing their best to support them as they recover what they have lost during COVID.
So how are colleges supposed to make admissions decisions in the world of A averages, test-optional, or test-free admissions?
Again at our conference, we heard about how test-free has produced some great results in terms of equity.
The UC system had also seen an increase in underrepresented groups and the quality of their applicants when they went test-free. In California, you are considered ELC if you are in the top 9% of your class. When the UCs went test-free, the rate of growth of ELC applicants outpaced the overall growth of applicants.
Places like the University of San Diego have seen a 25% surge in applications of Black and Hispanic students for first-year admission.
This is not across the board at all institutions. Overall, in many ways, it is still just advantaging the advantaged. It is easier to evaluate a test-free applicant from a top-tier high school than from an under-resourced one. Colleges are trying to be very cognizant of NOT doing this.
Many other colleges might be thinking of returning to requiring test scores. MIT made this decision last spring. Stuart Schmill, the Dean of Admissions and Student Financial Services at MIT, did a Q&A on MIT’s decision to reinstate their SAT/ACT requirement. Here is an interesting excerpt, which is long but worth reading.
Q: What do you say to those who argue the tests create structural barriers for socioeconomically disadvantaged and/or underrepresented students?
A: I appreciate this question, which we have kept foremost in our minds as we reviewed our research and policies. MIT Admissions has a strong commitment to diversity, and it is important to us that we minimize unfair barriers to our applicants wherever possible.
However, what we have found is that the way we use the SAT/ACT increases access to MIT for students from these groups relative to other things we can consider. The reason for this is that educational inequality impacts all aspects of a prospective student’s preparation and application, not just test-taking. As I wrote, low-income students, underrepresented students of color, and other disadvantaged populations often do not attend schools that offer advanced coursework (and if they do, they are less likely to be able to take it). They often cannot afford expensive enrichment opportunities, cannot expect lengthy letters of recommendation from their overburdened teachers, or cannot otherwise benefit from this kind of educational capital. Meanwhile, we know that the pandemic was most disruptive to our least-resourced students, who may have had no consistent coursework or grading for nearly two years now.
I realize this argument may sound counterintuitive to some who have heard that the SAT/ACT exams raise barriers for access, and I don’t want to ignore the challenges with, or limits of, the tests. They are just one tool among many that we use. However, what I think many people outside our profession don’t understand is how unfortunately unequal all aspects of secondary education are in this country. And unlike some other inequalities — like access to fancy internships or expensive extracurriculars — our empirical research shows the SAT/ACT actually do help us figure out if someone will do well at MIT.
MIT’s explanation goes on and is worth reading in full. A lot of what is being said resonates with me. I do not have the answers, but I keep hearing more rumblings and rumors that some other highly selective colleges will start requiring test scores next year. I am also sure many others will remain test-optional, and they are GREAT options for students. Many admissions directors have told us that their colleges have been tracking their test-optional student's performance in their classes and are holding off making permanent decisions on this issue until they have more data. Also, keep in mind that many universities were test-optional before the pandemic started, and they might be more genuine about not caring if students have test scores. Yesterday, Purdue announced that they will require test scores for the 2023/24 admissions cycle. We appreciate their transparency and the fact that they are telling students within enough time for them to prepare for and plan to take tests.
Our advice is always for students to ask themselves as they navigate the college admissions process: is what I am doing opening doors or closing them? Except at test-blind colleges and especially at highly selective colleges, a high test score keeps more doors open for you. Our recommendation to all juniors and younger students is to PREPARE for and take the SAT or ACT. Even better if you can take it twice since most colleges will allow you to superscore your exams. And by prepare, we mean really prep because next year, test-optional might not be an option at the college you want.