In 2005, the College of the Holy Cross became one of the first colleges in the country to make a bold change in its admissions process. The Worcester school no longer required applicants to submit what had long been a central component of preparing for college: standardized tests such as the SAT.
A decade and a half later, Holy Cross is joined by just about every one of its Central Massachusetts peers, and higher education admissions have been transformed.
Colleges generally no longer see the SAT or ACT as necessary for gauging whether a student will be successful at their schools. In fact, many find such tests to only reinforce built-in advantages some students – largely wealthy ones – enjoy before they ever get to college.