In the last few weeks, both Dartmouth and Yale have decided to end the test-optional policies they adopted during the height of COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020. The idea behind making schools test-optional in the first place was to accommodate students who suddenly found themselves unable to take the ACT or SAT because, well, everything was shut down. While some more progressive schools had adopted test-optional policies years (sometimes decades) prior, the first school of the Ivy League to adopt their own test-optional policy was Cornell, and all the other Ivies (and Ivy-adjacent top-tier schools) quickly followed.
Since adopting test-optional, a lot of schools started extending their policies out by years or even indefinitely (like Michigan). Another thing to note is that in the time since all of these already prestigious and competitive schools adopted test-optional policies, their application numbers have gone up. Way up. And schools love this. Increased apps mean more $$$ from application fees, and it also means more students are applying for a limited number of spots, which in turn reduces their acceptance rates, making them more and more exclusive as the years progress.
Let’s say in 2019, 20,000 students applied for 2,000 spots at University X. That means University X had an already highly competitive acceptance rate of 10%, but in 2023, they had 50,000 students applying for 2,000 spots – now they have an uber-exclusive 4% acceptance rate. For a real-life example, let’s look at Cornell. In 2019, Cornell had 49,114 applicants and accepted 5,330 of those students, a 10.85% acceptance rate. Exclusive, but not as exclusive as some of their counterparts. And in post-test-mandatory 2023, Cornell had 67,819 applicants and accepted 5,358 of those students, a 7.9% acceptance rate. Now, Cornell is in the single-digits club, and that’s in no small part to their test-optional policies driving more and more applicants to their admissions team.
However, things have started to shift, and we have a few theories as to why. Last year, MIT was the first school to start requiring test scores again, and in MIT, Dartmouth, and Yale’s statements on their no-longer-optional testing policy, they all invoke the same reasoning: test scores are the best predictor of college success. We don’t necessarily agree with that, but we also don’t disagree. We know from our side of the biz that students who submit scores like 1550+ or 35+ see better admissions stats from top schools, but we’ve also seen students who get in without test scores who are flourishing at their Ivy League schools. But it’s interesting that four years out from adopting test-optional policies, they’re now reversing it. Those initial test-optional students are now graduating, and maybe their performance across four years of college has been subpar.
Maybe this is the Ivy League’s first move in the war against high school grade inflation? Students who come from wealthy backgrounds, private schools, etc. have the means to do the kinds of extracurricular building that look impressive on college apps. This also means they have the means to test prep rigorously, and if they’re not submitting test scores along with their 4.0s and beefy extracurricular profile, maybe that’s starting to send red flags up to admissions officers.
There’s also some chatter that schools are doing this to actually increase accessibility for more disadvantaged students, which is also what schools were saying when they went test-optional to begin with? Dartmouth said in their statement that students who have very high test scores relative to their high school are often not submitting because they know the kids who are submitting are in that 1550+ 35+ range. The logic goes if a student goes to a lower ranked high school, where the average ACT is a 20, and that student is getting a 28 on theirs, that means they are more suited to be extremely high achieving at a hard school.
Look, we don’t super believe that Dartmouth, Yale, and MIT are doing this so they can accept students with sub-30 ACT scores, but we guess we’ll see when the scant data they do release comes in.
One thing to extra note is that while Yale is not test-optional, they are test-flexible. This means that they’ll be accepting AP and IB test scores to fill the requirement, not just those ACT and SAT scores. We do kinda like that, because some students do legitimately have issues with classic standardized tests, and the AP and IB tests are more tests of knowledge than skill.
So, what do we know? Test-optional policies help some schools look more exclusive. While some of the Big Boys(™) are bringing back standardized tests, there are many schools that have gone indefinitely test-optional this year too (like the aforementioned Michigan). What does it mean? Maybe nothing. We think more Ivy League schools will probably ditch their test-optional policies, although we wouldn’t be surprised if a) they wait to see the outcomes of Dartmouth and Yale’s new policy and b) Cornell never gets rid of theirs, since it’s been such a numbers boost.
What do you need to do about it? We’ve never been big believers in optional. We think you should treat every part of your college apps as mandatory because you want to give a mountain of evidence that you’re the right fit. Our advice, therefore, stays the same: take your standardized tests. Especially if you’re interested in top-tier schools.
Class of 2025, you may be the last class with a lot of test-optional options. Everyone who comes after, you should prepare to submit test scores like we did in the olden days (pre 2020). We think test-optional policies, while they do create more access to elite schools, have kinda gotten in your heads. We see students who think schools actually don’t care about scores at all, and maybe a few New England liberal arts schools might adhere to that ideology, most schools do care about test scores. There’s a reason the middle 50s at the top 20 or so colleges in the US are in the 33-36 range.
The tl;dr: test scores are back, baby. It’s probably going to be a slow burn across higher ed, but that means you need to start studying and prepping as if all schools are test-mandatory these days.
If you need help strategizing for college admissions, test scores or not, reach out to us today.