As stated earlier, this policy had been in the works for a while. The ACT/SAT standardised test requirement for admissions in US universities had been under the scanner of various higher education policies and advocacy groups, especially as the universities also used the ACT/SAT scores of students to determine its (college/university) rankings in the US.
With 2020 gripped by the global pandemic, countless tests were cancelled as most testing centres were closed across the globe. Universities at this point started to take into consideration the plight of students who had little or no access to testing opportunities and who would therefore have missed out on college admissions in the US had the ACT/SAT scores been mandatory for admissions.
In the early March of 2020, only 54% of SAT centres were open for testing, while the remaining were closed due to covid-related health and safety measures. Tests were cancelled in Spring, then Summer and even for the Fall. Similar setbacks were reported for the ACT as well.
Opting out of ACT/SAT in admissions also addresses the decade-long concerns that standardised test scores seemed to favour students from better financial backgrounds and made for an unequal playing field for other qualified students who came from not-so affluent backgrounds.
It was hard, for instance, to differentiate the test scores received by students who had little access to test-prep services from those who did have the resources to prep well. With the test-blind admissions policy, students of Hispanic, non-native English speakers, or even low-income groups, and/or students with learning disabilities would have better opportunities to get admissions of their choice.
