Popping the bubble: Columbia makes the SAT and ACT test-optional

Columbia University — which is either the second or 18th best college in the country, if you go by the data-dependent, and some say data-distorted, U.S. News rankings — has just made the two big tests high schoolers take, the SAT and ACT, optional. That’s the school’s right, but it’s a highly questionable decision. This may be erstwhile King’s College’s way of preventing its admissions system from being upended if and when the Supreme Court rules that existing subjective admissions criteria at many schools discriminate against Asian-American students. Schools like Columbia understandably value...