The Changing Ways We Decide Who Gets into College and Why it Matters.

Top of Mind with Julie Rose

For a century, the ACT and SAT played a central role in filtering college applicants. Most colleges and universities stopped requiring standardized test scores during the pandemic; that change has turned into a permanent shift across higher education. A lot of people think that's for the better, particularly since the tests have long been shown to disadvantage students of color and those with fewer economic resources. But now a growing number of elite schools - including Harvard, MIT and Dartmouth - are reinstating the test requirement. Why are they struggling to make up their minds? Meanwhile, the Supreme Court outlawed another prominent filter elite schools have used to make admissions decisions - race. Now that test score requirements are in flux and affirmative action is illegal, how do we decide who gets into college? Guests: Emi Nietfeld, journalist and author of "Acceptance: A Memoir" Nicholas Lemann, professor at the Columbia School of Journalism and author of "The Big Test: The Secret History of the American Meritocracy" and "Higher Admissions: The Rise, Decline, and Return of Standardized Testing" Alix Coupet, former admissions officer at Stanford and the University of Chicago, currently working in private admissions counseling Patricia Gandara, professor at UCLA’s Graduate School of Education and a co-director of the Civil Rights Project at UCLA