One of the key quotes from the article:

"Harvard held out longer than most; it dropped its testing requirement back in June 2020, when it was at least somewhat understandable given the difficulties of test-taking under lockdown conditions. But then the school kept it going. M.I.T. was the first to reinstate testing requirements, back in 2022 — one suspects it is more difficult to hide the incompetence of an entire class of students when it comes to the STEM disciplines than in the humanities. Dartmouth and Yale did so in February. And now Harvard, the biggest and most influential domino of them all, has finally fallen.

So can you imagine how terrible the Class of 2028 must look? The three Ivy League schools pushing the big red button, all at the same time — there is obviously a bandwagon effect going on here, after three admissions cycles of what must be disturbingly underqualified (and, as we have seen recently, under-socialized as well) classes of students."

Speaking from my own experience, BYU has to be seeing something similar with the quality of its students. I have personally known many kids in the last 3-4 years who have gotten admitted to the school, and sometimes received scholarships, with ACT scores in the teens or very low twenties, or SAT scores in the three digits. Grade inflation is incredibly rampant in high schools now, so if a HS student creates a schedule that seems to be somewhat challenging, but avoiding the most difficult courses, it can appear that they are just as qualified as the person who took AP Chemistry and AP Calculus. I think it is just as difficult to score a 4 or 5 on the hardest AP tests as it is to do well on the ACT or SAT, but if a kid can avoid both of those scenarios they can create a deceptively strong resume. That is why I think that Yale's new approach is interesting. You can choose to submit ACT/SAT OR AP test scores, but if you do the latter, you have to submit all of your AP scores, not just some of them. Provides another option while ensuring that the student can show he/she did well in rigorous courses with national standards.