Harvard drops standardized test requirement for 2021

"In a pivotal decision that will likely ripple across higher education, Harvard University announced on Monday that it will not require next year’s undergraduate applicants to submit standardized test scores.

The decision comes amid fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic and growing criticism that standardized test requirements unfairly penalize students of color.

A coalition of civil rights groups and education advocates intend to send a letter on Tuesday to elite colleges, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and UMass Amherst, urging them to scrap the SAT and ACT altogether." …

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/06/15/metro/harvard-drops-standardized-test-requirement-2021/

How does this affect the admissions process with one less factor to look at ? Will this put more emphasis on grades, ECs, or letters of rec. I think the standardized tests probably weeded thousand of kids out and now will it include kids who perhaps weren’t thinking of Harvard, but maybe stand out somewhere else on their high school record ?

Yeah, but that hardly means that someone coming from a high school that generally doesn’t send kids to Harvard is suddently going to be flush with acceptances. They are making provisions for the kids who can’t get the testing. That does not mean that the kid with the 1600 isn’t going to get an edge. So many people think coming from podunk U with a perfect GPA is equal to coming from a known entity with the same scores.