Test Mandatory…Again?

Over the past few months, many top colleges have announced a return to requiring the SAT & ACT as part of their standard admissions process in the coming cycle. MIT was one of the first back in March of 2022, but has since been followed by the majority of the Ivy League and the likes of Stanford, Cal Tech, Duke, and UChicago.

Let’s take a look at how we got here, why things are changing, and what it means for students entering the admissions gauntlet this fall. 

The short answer? COVID. The social distancing and educational upheaval brought about by the pandemic made testing very difficult to come by and tough for many communities to even administer.  During the height of the 2020-21 admissions cycle, my fellow Admissions Officers and I found ourselves talking to countless students who sometimes had to travel across multiple states just to sit for a test…only to have the test canceled that morning due to a positive case. Can you imagine? 

But colleges were beginning to employ test-optional policies even before COVID struck. Many universities had already begun to question the equitable nature of these standardized tests, and whether they disproportionately disadvantaged students who likely did not have access to testing prep resources and opportunities. There was also the question of whether or not higher standardized test scores were correlated with higher collegiate outcomes.

The waning influence of COVID and the rollout of new initiatives like the Digital SAT have more or less returned testing access to its pre-pandemic levels, but many colleges are maintaining their test-optional stances this coming cycle. Why the sudden change for top universities?

There has been strong evidence showing that colleges such as Yale, Duke, and Cornell preferred students with test scores over those without them throughout the past few test-optional admissions cycles, but likely not in an effort to make things unfair.  When universities ceased requiring scores as one of the few “quantitative” factors in the holistic admissions review process, they were often left with a single one to help pick the most competitive students: GPA. These are a notoriously unstandardized number that varies from school to school, almost always necessitating a much deeper dive into other factors such as actual grades, course rigor, and academic trends to even make sense. Adding SAT/ACT scores back into the fold would, in theory, help provide a more consistent, quantitative-based academic factor for AO’s to use when selecting the incoming class.  

Some top colleges have also found standardized test scores to be highly predictive of academic success entering their institutions, adding more incentive to return to requiring the scores in the admissions process.ourse, the growth in overall applicants to the most competitive universities means those acceptance rates will only continue to drop.

The 2024 – 2025 cycle is slated to continue seeing an increase in the number of applications received by top universities, which have already reached record levels the past few years. To keep themselves competitive, students should look to prepare for either the SAT or ACT as soon as possible, with the earliest recommended testing date coming in the summer after 10th grade. Starting early gives you multiple attempts to do your best, helping you achieve a competitive “superscore” that can be included in your admissions application. Tailoring your test prep to address the questions/sections you struggle with the most will ensure you’re seeing consistent improvement over time.

Test scores have always been part of the complex admissions puzzle, but an increased number of competitive applicants has seen the return of their requirement for many top colleges. We’d suggest treating the news of these top universities reinstating their test mandates with a “business-as-usual” mindset; the score will be just another factor that AO’s can consider when reviewing your application holistically. Focus your energy on test preparation and be sure to build a balanced college list to maximize your success this cycle!