My issue is admissions selling people a absolute dream by making it “optional” not because of them actually believing the new standardized testing movement but because they don’t want to “waste time” reviewing applications even though this is their job.
This goes with other admission issues as well (not wanting to read essays, not wanting to read letters of recommendation). I understand that admissions rep_________ doesn’t want to read 5,000+ essays from 17-18 year olds all over the nation and that can get boring but these institutions will get a 50-70 buck app fee from 30,000+ students a year and this is what parents and students from all over the country are paying you to do.
If you’re a parent, I can imagine you’d understand that you don’t want to pay your kids app fee for a school to lightly glance over your child’s entire 4 years in two minutes. You want a full evaluation, a essay read, letter of recommendations considered. Even if they had a student admissions officer/rep reading some essays, they need to be read by someone in that office because that is what you paid them to do.
However, the incumbency advantage of the SAT reasoning and ACT means that SAT subject tests are not widely “on the radar” of high school students, parents, and counselors. Even though they would be better predictors of college academic performance than the SAT reasoning and ACT, many colleges may not like the loss of applicants that they would experience if they required SAT subject tests (e.g. Harvard changed them from “required” to “recommended”, presumably to increase applications from less advantaged students who may not take the SAT subject tests in time).