While the list of test optional schools continues to grow, the importance of standardized testing has not diminished, at least in our minds. Maria Laskaris, former Dean of Admissions & Financial Aid at Dartmouth and Top Tier Admissions Senior Private Counselor, said it best in her recent blog, Grade Inflation and Standardized Testing:
“Although the pandemic has necessitated a major shift in the process of selecting students, the fact remains that standardized testing – for all its well-documented flaws and limitations – still provides admissions officers with additional data points to help them quickly sort through inflated applicant pools with large numbers of students from the same high schools whose grades are, as the USA Today author noted, within a few points of each other. That’s why, even in the current test-optional paradigm, test scores (perhaps AP scores even more than the SAT or ACT) continue to matter.”
SELECTED LIST OF TEST OPTIONAL SCHOOLS
| SCHOOL | TEST OPTIONAL |
| American University | Test optional going forward |
| Amherst College | 2024 enrollment |
| Babson University | 2025 enrollment |
| Barnard | 2024 enrollment |
| Bates | Since 1984 |
| Baylor | 2023 enrollment |
| Bentley | Spring 2024 enrollment |
| Boston College | 2023 enrollment |
| Boston University | Spring 2024 enrollment |
| Bowdoin | Since 1969 |
| Brandeis | Since 2013 |
| Brown | 2023 enrollment |
| Bryn Mawr | Since 2014 |
| Bucknell | 2024 enrollment, 5-year pilot |
| Butler University | Since 2021 |
| Caltech | 2023 enrollment – SAT subject tests no longer considered |
| Carleton | 2023 enrollment |
| Carnegie Mellon University | 2023 enrollment |
| Case Western University | 2024 enrollment |
| Claremont McKenna | 2024 enrollment |
| Colby | Now test-optional |
| Colgate University | 2023 enrollment |
| College of the Holy Cross | Since 2006 |
| Colorado College | Since 2019 |
| Columbia | 2024 enrollment |
| Connecticut College | Now test-optional |
| Cornell | 2024 enrollment |
| Dartmouth | 2023 enrollment |
| Davidson College | 3-year pilot |
| Denison College | Now test-optional |
| Dickinson | Since 1994 |
| Duke University | 2023 enrollment |
| Elon University | 2023 enrollment, pilot program |
| Emerson College | Since 2017 |
| Emory University | 2023 enrollment |
| Fairfield University | Since 2009 |
| Fordham University | 2024 enrollment |
| Franklin and Marshall College | Now test-optional |
| George Washington University | Since 2015 |
| Gettysburg College | Now test-optional |
| Gonzaga University | Now test-optional |
| Grinnell College | 2023 enrollment |
| Hamilton College | 2023 enrollment |
| Hampshire College | Since 2014 |
| Harvard | 2026 enrollment |
| Harvey Mudd College | 2023 enrollment |
| Haverford College | 2023 enrollment |
| Johns Hopkins University | 2026 enrollment |
| Kent State University | Now test-optional |
| Kenyon | 2023 enrollment |
| Lafayette College | 2023 enrollment |
| Lake Forest College | requires interviews for test-optional students |
| Lehigh University | 2024 enrollment |
| Loyola University New Orleans | Test-blind permanently |
| Loyola Marymount University | 2024 enrollment |
| Macalester | Since 2021 |
| Middlebury College | 2023 enrollment, previously test-flexible |
| Muhlenberg | Since 1996 |
| New York University | 2023 enrollment |
| Northeastern University | 2023 enrollment |
| Northwestern University | 2023 enrollment |
| Notre Dame University | 2024 enrollment |
| Oberlin College | 2023 enrollment |
| Occidental College | Now test-optional |
| Penn State University | 2023 enrollment |
| Pitzer | Now test-blind |
| Pomona College | 2024 enrollment |
| Princeton | 2023 enrollment |
| Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) | 2023 enrollment |
| Rice | 2023 enrollment |
| Rhodes College | 2023 enrollment |
| Rochester Institute of Technology | 2023 enrollment |
| Rutgers University | 2024 enrollment |
| Santa Clara University | 2023 enrollment |
| Sarah Lawrence College | Now test-optional |
| Scripps College | Now test-optional |
| Sewanee: University of the South | Since 2009 |
| Skidmore College | 2023 enrollment |
| Smith College | Since 2009 |
| Southern Methodist University | Spring 2024 enrollment |
| St. Thomas Aquinas College | 2023 enrollment |
| Stanford University | 2023 enrollment |
| Stevens Institute of Technology | 2023 enrollment |
| Swarthmore College | 2025 enrollment |
| Syracuse University | Spring 2024 enrollment |
| Texas A&M | 2023 enrollment |
| Trinity College | Since 2016 |
| Trinity University | 2023 enrollment |
| Tufts University | 2023 enrollment |
| Tulane University | 2023 enrollment |
| UCalifornia– all campuses | Test blind for 2023/2024 (new test for 2025 and beyond) |
| UC Berkeley | Test-blind through Fall 2024 enrollment |
| UCLA | Test-blind through Fall 2024 enrollment |
| UChicago | Now test-optional |
| UIllinois | 2023 enrollment |
| UMiami | 2023 enrollment |
| UMichigan | Test flexible for 2024 enrollment |
| UNC Chapel Hill | 2024 enrollment |
| Union | Now test-optional |
| University of South Carolina | 2023 enrollment |
| UPenn | 2023 enrollment |
| URichmond | 2023 enrollment |
| URochester | Now test-optional |
| USC | 2023 enrollment |
| UT Austin | 2023 enrollment |
| UVA | 2023 enrollment |
| UVM | 2023 enrollment |
| University of Washington | Since 2021 |
| University of Wisconsin-Madison | Spring 2025 enrollment |
| Vanderbilt University | 2024 enrollment |
| Vassar College | 2023 enrollment |
| Virginia Tech | 2025 enrollment |
| Wake Forest | Since 2008 |
| Washington and Lee University | 2023 enrollment |
| Washington University in St. Louis | 2024 enrollment |
| Wellesley | 2024 enrollment |
| Wesleyan | Since 2014 |
| William and Mary | Now test-optional |
| Williams College | 2023 enrollment |
| WPI | Test-blind permanently |
| Yale | 2023 enrollment |
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