If you've been operating under the assumption that standardized tests are becoming less important in college admissions, it's time to update that assumption.
Over the past year, a growing list of highly selective schools — Dartmouth, Yale, Brown, Georgetown, Cornell (for select programs), Purdue, UT Austin, and Florida's public university system — have reinstated SAT/ACT requirements for fall 2025 admissions. This marks a real reversal from the test-optional wave that swept through higher ed from 2020 to 2023.
Why the change?
The reasoning these institutions have given centers on equity, not exclusivity which surprises a lot of parents. Internal research at several of these schools found that when test scores were made optional, admissions officers had a harder time identifying high-achieving students from under-resourced backgrounds. Without a shared, objective data point, GPA alone can be a less reliable signal grading standards vary widely between schools and districts, and students from well-resourced high schools with grade inflation can look statistically similar to students doing exceptional work in far more challenging circumstances.
In other words, some admissions offices concluded that removing test scores didn't level the playing field it may have made it harder to spot talent that didn't come with the usual institutional markers (elite high school, robust AP catalog, well-connected counselor).
What this means for families right now
For parents of students applying to these schools or schools that may follow this trend this is worth sitting with rather than reacting to. A few things worth considering:
- This is not a return to 2019. Many schools remain test-optional, and policies vary significantly by institution and even by program within a university.
- The schools reinstating requirements are, so far, concentrated among highly selective privates and large public flagships. It's not yet a universal trend, but it's a meaningful data point about where admissions philosophy may be heading.
- If your student is targeting any of the schools above, or similar institutions, testing is no longer something to deprioritize by default.
A genuine question to sit with
If your family made a testing decision (or non-decision) based on the assumption that scores were becoming optional across the board does this shift change how you're thinking about the next 6-12 months, or does it feel more like noise until more schools follow suit?