Colleges Reinstate SAT, ACT Requirements
Dartmouth, Yale, MIT and others are reinstating SAT or ACT test score requirements for admissions, citing a need to better assess student readiness and
Several leading universities are reinstating SAT or ACT score requirements for admissions. This move revives a long-standing debate over the tests' fairness and value, according to a report by EdSurge.
Institutions initially dropped the requirements during the COVID-19 pandemic when testing centers shut down. Schools became either 'test optional' or 'test blind', also called 'test free'.
Dartmouth College, Yale University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are leading the return to required testing. They argue scores help spot deserving hidden talent in underfunded high schools and assess readiness better than grade point averages alone. Columbia University will become the final Ivy League school to bring back testing for the 2027-28 admissions cycle. Over 1,300 faculty at the University of California have signed letters asking for test requirements to be reinstated in that system.
Faculty Concerns Over Preparedness
College faculty have expressed concern about the impact of dropping test requirements. Independent educational consultant Laurie Kopp Weingarten says faculty complain that more students arrive unprepared for college-level work. They have to teach basics to some students who, they believe, should never have been admitted.
Kevin Krebs, founder of HelloCollege, echoes this. 'We've seen too many students enroll without the foundational skills needed to succeed,' Krebs explains. He says this is difficult for students and faculty, and can contribute to lower retention rates.
The Test Optional Effect
After dropping requirements, many schools saw bigger applicant pools and lower admission rates with a 'test optional' policy. John Morganelli Jr., a former Cornell admissions director, says application volume rose sharply at selective schools. Removing test scores added more weight to essays, activities, and recommendations. These parts are most sensitive to who has access to good resources. 'I don't think that trade was as equitable as it was advertised to be,' he states.
Rising applications and falling admission rates made schools look more competitive. Average SAT or ACT scores also soared because only high scorers submitted, discouraging other applicants. Weingarten notes that without test scores, colleges lost a common measure for comparing applicants from schools with different grading scales and course offerings.
Tests and Scholarships
Reinstating requirements could help students secure scholarships. Annie Bao, an Alabama high school senior, plans to apply with her ACT score. Alabama provides a free ACT test to all college-bound students. Bao does not believe tests completely represent readiness, but says they provide useful information on problem-solving and reasoning under time constraints.
Svetlana Kekutiia of Crimson Global Academy agrees. She says more credible academic data allows selective universities to make better-informed decisions. A standardized test provides evidence of readiness when interpreted alongside school context and grades.
Marsha Familaro Enright of Reliance College argues the debate is framed poorly. She says tests predict first-year grades but not capacities like independent thinking. An SAT score shows how a student performs alone on questions with one right answer. She believes schools reinstating requirements are optimizing for a publicly defensible metric. For small institutions, she adds, the tradeoff is different because they can get to know applicants. A score is a rationing device for schools with more applications than they can read.
Kevin Krebs says reinstatement should pay immediate dividends. Tests provide a common benchmark across high schools and can identify high-achieving students whose transcripts alone may not tell the full story. Strong scores remain important for merit scholarships. He notes the biggest mistake is assuming 'test optional' means test irrelevant. Many selective colleges have remained test optional in name while a majority of admitted students still submit scores.
Laurie Kopp Weingarten says reinstating requirements can address student stress. In a test optional scenario, consultants spent time deciding whether to submit scores. Students often received vague advice from admissions officers. With 'test required', that stress disappears.
As schools reinstate requirements, they are focused on treating test scores as one piece of a holistic admissions process.
