The pandemic normalized test-optional policies, but now some colleges are back to requiring admissions tests. Amid conflicting research, here’s why it matters that some colleges are moving away from test-optional policies.
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Almost a century after the first SAT college admissions test was first administered, in 1926, its importance and impact seemed to be waning.
In 2020 – before the COVID-19 pandemic – almost half of four-year colleges and universities nationwide, close to 1,100, did not require college admissions tests (the SAT and ACT). In 2024, that number grew to slightly more than 2,000, according to statistics put out by The National Center for Fair & Open Testing (FairTest), a nonprofit organization focused on the misuse and overuse of such tests.
The increase was largely due to difficulties taking the test during the pandemic, and many universities indicated the move to test-optional policies was not necessarily permanent. But in May 2020, the prestigious University of California system, serving some 300,000 students, announced that as of 2025, it would eliminate the ACT or SAT as part of its college admissions process. It was widely assumed that many other institutions would follow.
But something changed in 2024. To the dismay of those who would like to see the high-stakes admissions tests disappear – or at least be optional – several top-tier universities announced that they will return to requiring an SAT or ACT score from applicants. These include Yale, Dartmouth, Brown and The University of Texas at Austin. Other elite schools, such as Columbia University and the University of Michigan, announced they will remain test optional.
The issue of college-admissions tests has increasingly become one important factor in the overarching issue of equity in higher education. Journalists should not only question whether a college mandates, makes optional or excludes SATs and ACTs from its admissions process – but also how rigorously it has looked into the impact of that decision on low-income, first-generation students and students of color.
Although research on the issue is somewhat mixed, many colleges have found that a thoughtful test-optional policy can lead to an increase in overall applications as well as a more diverse student body.
But that is only one data point. Without a myriad of other changes, such as broader recruitment practices, targeted student support initiatives, academic support and increased financial aid, removing the barrier of admissions tests will have little effect.
“Test optional removes one hurdle,” said Chris Bennett, a research education analyst at the nonprofit research institute firm RTI International. “It’s a step in the right direction, but it can’t be the end goal.”
A number of questions surround the issue of whether or not a college should require tests as part of the admissions process, but these are the two key ones journalists should examine: How much does an SAT or ACT score help predict a student’s college success, and does the requirement to submit such scores help or hurt the student populations many colleges and universities say they want to attract: low-income and first-generation students and students of color.
First of all, there is no question that test scores are strongly linked to income – data, including from the organizations that oversee the tests, repeatedly show that.
The College Board, the nonprofit that administers the SAT, shows in its research that each step up the economic ladder reflects an increase in students’ test scores. For example, in 2023, 11% of students from families in the lowest-income quintile – making $0 to $53,263 – took the SAT, compared with 26% of students from families making more than $113,341. Of the low-income group, the mean score was 891 – out of 1,600 – compared to 1,148 in the top quintile.
Students of color and first-generation students also score lower than white and Asian students.
The ACT company has published its own numbers showing that from 2019 to 2023, Black and Latino students consistently score significantly lower than white and Asian students on its test. An October 2023 report by Opportunity Insights, a nonprofit, nonpartisan group of Harvard University researchers and analysts who work to identify barriers to economic opportunity, found that the children of the wealthiest 1% of Americans were 13 times likelier to score a 1300 on the SAT or 29-31 on the ACT.
There are numerous reasons why such students of color and first-generation students score lower. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, a higher percentage of Black, Hispanic and American Indian students attend high-poverty K-12 schools compared to white and Asian students. These schools often have fewer resources, including Advanced Placement classes and college counselors who can guide students through the testing maze.
Higher-income families can hire tutors or enroll their children in classes to prep for such tests. As the Brookings Institution noted, “Scores from the SAT and ACT tests are good proxies for the amount of wealth students are born into.”
In addition, historically the types of questions asked focused on white and middle-class culture and knowledge, to the detriment of other ethnicities and races.
If everyone knows the tests are biased, why keep them?
Research has generally shown that high school grade point average is a better predictor of college success than standardized tests. But some argue – as do the Ivy Leagues that moved back to requiring test scores – that the scores together with the GPA, when put in socioeconomic context, are more useful for admissions counselors. And, they argue that can bring in greater, not less, diversity.
The College Board points to a series of studies that show going test-optional doesn’t boost the number of underrepresented students and takes away a useful tool for admissions officers.
In 2019, the College Board introduced Landscape, a database that gives admissions officers context for the test scores. It helps these counselors know the typical test scores for the applicant’s high school as well as Advanced Placement participation and performance. Lower-resourced schools may offer fewer AP classes, which are often considered the most rigorous, than richer schools. The database also gives neighborhood data, such as income and education level.
Yale University found that a move away from testing, counterintuitively, hurts low-income students at its institution.
The reason, its statement said, is that without scores, admissions officers often placed greater weight on other parts of the applications, such as if a student took more difficult classes, engaged in extracurriculars and received exceptional letters of recommendation. That will typically favor richer students who, again, have more access to advanced classes and enrichment activities as well as smaller classes, so teachers can write a more detailed and specific letter of recommendation.
It also said that even controlling family income and other variables, test scores are the greatest predictor of how students will succeed academically at Yale. The other Ivy Leagues that reversed their test-optional policies cited similar findings.
Angel Pérez, CEO for the National Association for College Admission Counseling, said he would take those findings “with a grain of salt. The research that they are doing within their own institutions is about an applicant pool that is probably the most accomplished in the world.”
“For most low-income, first-generation students, testing provides an extraordinary barrier,” added Pérez, who was the vice president of enrollment and student success at Trinity College for five years. “It is expensive; it is unaffordable; it creates stress and anxiety.”
And a number of studies show that more underrepresented students apply and enroll at colleges with a well-executed test-optional admission policy. And that such students largely succeed academically.
Still, few believe simply going test optional alone – without investing in financial aid, mentoring and advising – will make a real difference in improving diversity.
Bennett, the education analyst, authored a study on the test-optional policies while a doctoral student at Vanderbilt University. He looked at approximately 100 private colleges and universities that went test optional in 2005-6 and 2015-16. Such a policy led to “modest but meaningful improvement in diversity,” he said.
For almost all students, the tests cause angst for months on end, especially as many take it more than once in hope of improving their scores.
“If you speak to any high school counselor today, and I spend a lot of time with them, they would all agree that the exam places an extraordinary burden on the lowest-income, most marginalized students,” Pérez said, adding that he doesn’t think most colleges will follow the Ivy Leagues.
Melisa Hypolite, director of strategic partnerships at CollegeBound Foundation in Baltimore, a nonprofit that counsels mainly low-income and first-generation public-school students, said she much prefers test optional.
“I see students who don’t get the test scores they thought they would get and think maybe they’re not good enough to go to college,” she said. “Maybe they didn’t have the prep or have testing anxiety. You have a really good kid who can be an asset to that school community, and now they’re not applying to it.”
Priscilla Grijalva, a high school counselor in California’s San Jacinto Unified School District told The Washington Post that eliminating test requirements in the UC systems was an enormous benefit to the nearly 300 students she works with annually, most low-income. Far more are willing to apply to state colleges now rather than just community colleges.
“It has changed our students’ mindsets,” Grijalva said. “Now it’s like, ‘Hey, I can do this.’
Too often, reporting on standardized testing can become a story of conflicting studies. To help readers understand the importance of this debate, check out these tips:
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