Duke Eliminates Essay and Test Rankings for College Applicants
Historically, the college admissions landscape has not seen major consecutive shifts in the industry. Throughout the decades, changes have been slow and gradual. However, in the past several years alone, major shifts have occurred in how top US schools handle college decisions and process applications. From changes to federal student aid to updates and revisions in testing policies and even the abolition of affirmative action, many have deemed this one of the most chaotic times for college admissions, with a new change in the landscape seeming to occur every season.
The latest among these changes is an announcement made by Duke University detailed in the Chronicle, which announced that Duke University will no longer be assigning numerical ratings to the standardized tests and essays of their applicants. This decision comes as many other universities have changed their application process, namely, the reversion of many test-optional policies that schools had adopted in the wake of the pandemic.
Now, Duke University will employ a more holistic approach to reviewing applicants’ essays.
Duke’s Updated Application Policy for Essays and Tests
In the Chronicle’s article, dean of undergraduate admissions Christoph Guttentag explained that Duke would no longer be scoring applicants’ college essays by numerical rating—mainly due to the rise of generative AI writing programs.
These programs have the ability to generate essays and other types of writing within a matter of seconds, and since the public release of programs such as chat GPT in late 2022, the amount of users for these programs has been steadily rising. In August of 2023—only nine months after being released to the public—Chat GPT had garnered a user base of over 180.5 million, with over 1 million joining in just its first five days of public access. Since then, the number of people using Generative AI has steadily increased, and this explosive growth has impacted numerous industries, including education.
“Essays are a very much part of our understanding of the applicant, we’re just no longer assuming that the essay is an accurate reflection of the student’s actual writing ability,” Guttentag wrote to the Chronicle.
Essays and test scores are still vital parts of Duke University’s application process, as they are with many top schools. However, with this change, Duke and its admissions officers will no longer use numerical ratings when evaluating applicants and will instead employ a more “holistic process” for students applying to college.
This change was enacted earlier this year, and in its updated admissions process, Duke admissions officers will be using essays to better understand an applicant’s character and personality rather than measure them by their list of accolades and accomplishments, Guttentag said.
The Changing College Admissions Landscape
Holistic review is the practice of considering every aspect of an application, from grades and test scores to extracurricular achievements, passions, and interests, as well as character traits and general personality. Holistic review has been the trend among the top schools in the United States for years. As the top schools become more competitive, they broaden the scope of what they evaluate—especially is a student is applying to medical school or law school. Having the highest GPA ever would certainly help a student’s chances, but it will not guarantee admission. School clubs, extracurricular activities, passion projects, research projects, student profile
Students concerned about their academics, asking, “Is a 3.4 GPA good?” can leverage holistic review to their advantage by excelling in other areas—such as outstanding extracurricular activities, letters of recommendation, and a compelling personal statement and student profile in addition to their high school transcripts. Those looking to attend college, whether they be local or international students, must perfect every aspect of their application.
Duke’s shift to an even more holistic style of evaluating applicants’ essays and test scores may have broader implications for the future of higher education. However, this is only one small change in a season that has seen some of the largest and most critical shifts in the college admissions landscape.
This past year alone, The college admissions process has undergone many changes. In the summer of 2023, the Supreme Court ruled to abolish affirmative action in college admissions, affecting how millions of students craft their college applications and submit their common application each year. This past application cycle, a revision to the federal student financial aid website caused many high school applicants to lose out on millions in financial aid and Pell Grants. In the past six months of 2024, numerous Ivy League schools and top US institutions have amended their college application process, and they are once again requiring applicants to submit their standardized test scores with their college applications. The shift to test-optional for many of the top US and Ivy League schools first came about in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic to keep college applications accessible for students who could no longer take standardized tests. But now, Yale, Harvard, UT Austin, Duke, and many other top national and Ivy League schools have reverted their COVID-Era policies—once again having test scores as an admission requirement. for college application.
All these changes alone have caused great confusion among high school applicants and their families throughout the 2023-24 college admissions cycle. However, with industry-changing technology such as Chat GPT and other generative AI tools shaping society, prospective students should expect more changes in higher education and the college admissions landscape in the coming years.
How to stay ahead of the trends in college applications
As the industry continues to evolve and become more complex, InGenius Prep and the students who work with us have seen increasingly positive results in college admission decisions, educational aspirations, and career goals year over year.
In this past admission cycle, we have seen our most successful season yet. We helped over 700 students gain acceptance into top US schools, with over 130 InGenius students accepted into a top 10 university.
At InGenius Prep, we coach our students to improve their academics, enhance their student profiles, and become the ideal applicants for their dream schools. Becoming the ideal applicant and standing out to college admissions officers starts with building one’s candidacy throughout high school, highlighting positive characteristics and personality traits, and having a solid extracurricular and academic foundation as the building blocks of a student’s college application.
To stay ahead of the trends and learn more about how to become a stellar college applicant, see InGenius Prep’s Candidacy Building program, which is designed to help students ace holistic reviews with the help of our former admissions officers from top universities.
Click here to schedule a free strategy meeting and begin your student’s college journey!
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