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Very few high school students find joy in taking the ACT or SAT. Once a routine aspect of the college admissions process, standardized tests have become the subject of much discussion (and confusion) since the pandemic, when limited access to safe testing triggered the widespread adoption of test-optional policies among American colleges and universities. As the pandemic has waned, the testing landscape has become a patchwork quilt of diverging policies, with some colleges and universities requiring the submission of ACT or SAT scores, some allowing students to submit sores from ACT, SAT, Advanced Placement (AP), or International Baccalaureate (IB) exams, some making score submission entirely optional, and still others completely disregarding the test scores.
Test score policies also fluctuate over time. In February, 2024, Dartmouth College announced the reactivation of its standardized testing requirement beginning with applicants to the Class of 2029. The following day, however, Vanderbilt University announced a three-year continuation of its test-optional policy (for students entering in the fall of 2025, 2026, and 2027). Later that same month, Yale University announced its adoption of a “test-flexible” policy requiring students to submit scores from either the ACT, SAT, AP, or IB examinations. In March, 2024, the University of Texas at Austin reinstated its testing requirement, as did Brown University. On the very same day as the Brown announcement, the University of Pennsylvania extended its test-optional policy through the 2024-25 application cycle. Like Penn, the University of Michigan announced a shift from its pandemic-era test-flexible policy to a test-optional policy for the 2025 cycle. Michigan indicated that it would revisit its policy on an ongoing basis. Like Penn, Vanderbilt, and Michigan, the vast majority of colleges and universities in the U.S. are currently test-optional, including most state public flagship institutions. Notably, however, the University of Tennesee-Knoxville, the University of Georgia, the Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of Florida, Florida State University, and Purdue University all require test scores. Of those institutions, all but the Florida public universities had adopted test-optional policies as a result of the pandemic.
As the testing landscape has evolved, students who submit competitive test scores (relative to their high schools and the particular college’s applicant pool) have generally enjoyed higher admit rates than their similarly-situated peers without scores. This trend is particularly prominent at highly-selective universities, which are often inundated with applications from students with high test scores and grade point averages. Additionally, without a test score, students may foreclose the possibility of applying to one or more schools of interest. And, with some colleges changing their policies from year to year, students who plan to forgo testing may find themselves scrambling to test if a desired college restores its testing requirement.
In light of the above, most students should strongly consider preparing for and taking the ACT or SAT—as if these tests were a required part of the admissions process. Earning a score that is strong relative to a student’s grades and high school, as well as a college’s applicant pool, will likely strengthen a student’s overall application. A competitive score can also potentially help offset weaker grades or extracurricular involvement. Some students, particularly those who are unlikely to earn a test score commensurate with or better than their grades or who are targeting less selective colleges, may elect to skip testing. Forgoing testing is a reasonable option, so long as the student recognizes that some options may be unavailable and that odds of admission might be lessened. Students who choose not to test because they claim to be “bad test-takers” or don’t want to dedicate time and effort to preparing for the exam might want to reconsider this decision and approach testing as they would have prior to the pandemic.
