Standardized Testing Policies: A Shifting Landscape

Test-optional? Test-flexible? Test-blind? Test-neutral? Test-recommended? Test-aware? While many universities have announced post-pandemic admissions policies that re-instate mandatory standardized test scores, there is still no consensus. Even within the Ivy League there is division: Brown University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, and Yale University have all returned to requiring test scores while Columbia University, University of Pennsylvania, and Princeton University remain test-optional (at least for now).

Students applying to test-optional schools face a new layer of confusion: whether or not to submit their test scores and how much admissions officers really take scores into account. It is almost impossible to assess, based on official testing policies, how optional “test-optional” really is, especially after data has revealed that, at most top-ranked schools, those who submitted test scores received admission offers at a much higher rate than applicants who chose not to. Data from the Common Data Set revealed that the vast majority of enrolling students at UChicago, Brown, Dartmouth, Duke, Harvard, Princeton, and Yale submitted test scores in 2022. Schools with a more neutral approach to testing including Boston College, Johns Hopkins, Tufts, USC, University of Wisconsin–Madison, and Wake Forest, where closer to half of enrolling students submitted scores. 

STANDARDIZED TESTING: COLLEGE SUCCESS & EQUITY

While pandemic-era test-optional policies called into question the effectiveness of standardized testing as a college readiness metric, new data shows that requiring test scores actually helps predict college success. In the recent New York Times article, The Misguided War on the SAT, author David Leonhardt notes, “Research has increasingly shown that standardized test scores contain real information, helping to predict college grades, chances of graduation and post-college success. Test scores are more reliable than high school grades, partly because of grade inflation in recent years.”

Equity in college admissions is another facet of these shifting standardized testing requirements under scrutiny.  Students from well-resourced communities and high schools with easy access to test prep resources tend to perform better than those students without access to in-school SAT prep courses or where outside tutoring is cost prohibitive. The idea of test-optional for students in lower socioeconomic communities may have felt like a gift horse, when in fact, not submitting scores can be detrimental to their application. According to Brown University’s Ad Hoc Committee on Admissions Policies executive summary, “The committee was concerned that some students from less advantaged backgrounds are choosing not to submit scores under the test-optional policy, when doing so would actually increase their chances of being admitted,” the report said.

At Top Tier Admissions, we are committed to making the college admissions process more transparent and less confusing. With this in mind, we have compiled the current standardized test policies at the top 25 universities and liberal arts colleges around the country, as well as the score submit rates for enrolled students. Curious to know the Average SAT Scores at Top Colleges? We have that for you, too!

STANDARDIZED TESTING POLICIES

National Universities

Schools	Standardized Testing Policy	Score Submit Rates *enrolled	Submitted Scores Info
Princeton	test optional	Data not yet released
MIT	test required	Data not yet released
Harvard	test required	52% submitted SAT, 22% submitted ACT
Stanford	test optional	47% submitted SAT, 22% submitted ACT
Yale	test required	56% submitted SAT, 26% submitted ACT
UPenn	test optional	Data not yet released
Cal Tech	test required	Data not yet released
Duke	test optional	Data not yet released
Brown	test required	54% submitted SAT, 22% submitted ACT	Applicants submitting test scores: 76.13%
Johns Hopkins	test optional	41% submitted SAT, 14% submitted ACT
Northwestern	test optional	Data not yet released
Columbia	test optional	Data not yet released
Cornell	Test scores recommended for fall 2025 and required for fall 2026	42% submitted SAT, 14% submitted ACT	Applicants submitting test scores: 24%, Admits submitting test scores: 42%, Enrollees submitting test scores: 48%
U Chicago	test optional	Data not yet released
UC Berkeley	test blind	No Data
UCLA	test blind	No Data
Rice	test optional	Data not yet released
Dartmouth	test required	Data not included in CDS
Vanderbilt	test optional	25% submitted SAT, 26% submitted ACT	Applicants submitting test scores: 53.70%, Admits submitting test scores: Similar to the percentage of applicants who submitted test scores
U Notre Dame	test optional	30% submitted SAT, 28% submitted ACT
U Michigan	test-flexible	52% submitted SAT, 18% submitted ACT
Georgetown	test required	Data not yet released
UNC Chapel Hill	test optional	Data not yet released
Carnegie Mellon	test optional	51% submitted SAT, 17% submitted ACT
Emory	test optional	Data not yet released
UVA	test optional	Data not yet released
WUSTL	test optional	Data not yet released

Liberal Arts Colleges

Schools	Standardized Testing Policy	Score Submit Rates *enrolled	Submitted Scores Info
Williams	test optional	42% submitted SAT, 18% submitted ACT
Amherst	test optional	38% submitted SAT, 17% submitted ACT
US Naval	test flexible	Data not yet released
Pomona	test optional	29% submitted SAT, 15% submitted ACT
Swarthmore	test optional	40% submitted SAT, 14% submitted ACT
Wellesley	test optional	42% submitted SAT, 17% submitted ACT
US Air Force	Need PSAT, PreACT, SAT and/or ACT	Data not yet released
West Point	test required	Data not yet released
Bowdoin	test optional	37% submitted SAT, 22% submitted ACT	Enrollees submitting test scores: 56%
Carleton	test optional	32% submitted SAT, 28% submitted ACT
Barnard	test optional	Data not yet released
Claremont McKenna	test optional	29% submitted SAT, 16% submitted ACT
Grinnell	test optional	Data not yet released
Middlebury	test optional	28% submitted , 14% submitted ACT	Applicants submitting test scores: 45%
Wesleyan	test optional	52% submitted SAT, 19% submitted ACT	Admits submitting test scores: 58%
Davidson	test optional	30% submitted SAT, 27% submitted ACT
Hamilton	test optional	34% submitted SAT, 17% submitted ACT
Harvey Mudd	test optional	51% submitted SAT, 17% submitted ACT
Smith	test optional	Data not yet released
Vassar	test optional	26% submitted SAT, 13% submitted ACT	Enrollees submitting test scores: 40%
Colgate	test optional	Data not yet released
Haverford	test optional	40% submitted SAT, 14% submitted ACT	Enrollees submitting test scores: ~50%
Washington & Lee	test optional	27% submitted SAT, 25% submitted ACT	Enrollees submitting test scores: 52%
Bates	test optional	18% submitted SAT, 10% submitted ACT
Colby	test optional	Data not yet released
U Richmond	test optional	20% submitted SAT, 16% submitted ACT

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