College Test Score Policies: Read Between the Lines

This Trends in Education article from C2 Education examines the shifting landscape of college admissions test score policies. As institutions weigh test-optional versus test-required approaches, students and families need to understand how these trends impact applications—and why strong SAT and ACT scores still matter.

Table of Contents

• The Four Main Test Policies
• Colleges Increasingly Require Test Scores
• The Subtle Middle Ground Between Test Optional and Test Required
• What This Means for College Applicants
• New Research Shows SAT®/ACT® Scores are the Best Predictor of College Success
• Test Scores Predict College Success 4x More Accurately than High School GPA
• The Predictive Power of Test Scores is Unbiased
• More Elite Colleges Are Likely to Return to Test Required Policies
• Test Scores Can Confirm or Undermine a High GPA

In 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic turned the world upside down, the nation’s colleges and universities decided en masse to shift to test optional policies. This was to address the limited availability of official SAT and ACT testing dates and centers as public health concerns limited in-person activities. Now, five years later, where do schools stand on standardized test scores in the admissions process?

The Four Main Test Policies

In general, college test score policies fall into one of four buckets:

• Test Blind: Under a test blind policy, the college will not accept or review test scores. This is one of the least common test score policies, but it is practiced by some big-name schools, including all University of California schools.
• Test Optional: A test optional policy means that students can apply with or without test scores. As of now, most colleges and universities practice some form of test optional admissions.
• Test Flexible: Schools that practice test flexible admissions do require test scores for admission, but they allow students to submit AP or IB scores in lieu of SAT or ACT scores. NYU and Yale are examples of schools with a Test Flexible policy.
• Test Required: This is the old school testing policy, under which students must submit SAT or ACT scores to be considered for admission.

Colleges Increasingly Require Test Scores

Over the past few years, many of the most prestigious schools in the country have returned to test required policies, including six out of eight Ivy League schools. STEM-focused schools like MIT, Caltech, and Georgia Tech have started requiring test scores for admission, as have several public university systems, as in Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, and Ohio.

There are a few reasons for this:

• STEM programs require strong math preparation, and studies at MIT and elsewhere have highlighted SAT or ACT scores as key to determining applicants’ degree of math preparation.
• Research has demonstrated that SAT or ACT scores are the best predictor of college success. In fact, test scores are four times better at predicting college grades than high school GPA is.
• Grade inflation is a growing concern. Standardized test scores allow colleges to make apples-to-apples comparisons among students from a wide array of high schools with vastly different grading policies and behaviors.
• Findings from Harvard and Brown have demonstrated that test optional policies were actually harming underrepresented student groups.

The Subtle Middle Ground Between Test Optional and Test Required

In the past two years, we’ve seen a marked increase in the number of colleges that seem to be riding the line between test optional and test required. These are schools that are officially test optional but that subtly indicate a preference for test scores. Here is a small sampling of these unofficially “test preferred” schools:

• Boston College: “Boston College, internal research has shown that test scores…add measurable value in predicting academic success. For this reason, students…are encouraged to submit their scores.”
• Princeton University: “Though standardized test results will not be required for fall entry 2025, we still value these results.”
• Rice University: “Rice recommends first-year and transfer student applicants…submit SAT or ACT scores. Standardized tests have long served to provide meaningful information about a student’s preparedness for the rigors of a Rice education.”

Many other schools are very careful to note that their current test optional policies have been extended to 2025, with colleges noting that they may decide to change these policies in the future. Such language indicates that those schools are actively considering a return to requiring test scores, typically because they see value in test scores in admission decisions.

What This Means for College Applicants

It’s no longer enough for families to simply identify potential colleges by their official test policies—especially in an era in which the biggest search engines offer a quick summary at the top of search results. Of the three colleges we highlighted who offer pretty clear indications that they prefer to see test scores from applicants, all three show up as simply “test optional” in a Google search. Families need to dig deeper into test optional policies to read between the lines.

Some key things to look for when looking into test optional policies include:

• Specifically noting how long the current test optional policy has been extended for. Schools that say their test optional policy has been extended to a specific time are actively considering a return to requiring scores, suggesting that they prefer these scores be a part of the admissions process.
• The use of words like “encourage,” “recommend,” or “prefer” in reference to submitting test scores. This language suggests that the school really does want students to submit scores.
• Language about the value of standardized test scores. Schools that highlight the value of test scores are subtly suggesting that they would like to see applicants’ scores.
• Requiring test scores for certain applicants. When a school requires scores for applicants to specific majors, colleges, or programs or for applicants under a certain GPA threshold, this is an indication that the school sees great value in standardized test scores.

Families with students who will apply to college a year or more down the road should pay particular attention to shifting testing policies. In the last two months, both the University of Pennsylvania and Ohio State University have announced a return to requiring tests; this time last year, a flurry of schools, including Harvard and Caltech, announced the end of their test optional policies. The admissions landscape is ever changing, and it is not safe to assume that today’s policies will apply next year.

New Research Shows SAT®/ACT® Scores are the Best Predictor of College Success

The role of standardized tests in college admissions has been debated for decades—long before the COVID-19 pandemic led colleges across the nation to adopt test-optional admission policies. Now, new research from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), a nonpartisan organization, offers clear evidence of the value of standardized college admissions tests. According to the study authors, SAT and ACT scores are the number one predictor of success at an elite college, making these test scores extremely valuable in the college admissions process.

Test Scores Predict College Success 4x More Accurately than High School GPA

During this study, researchers analyzed the admissions and transcript records for students at Ivy League schools, the University of Chicago, Duke University, MIT, and Stanford to examine the relationship between SAT or ACT scores, high school GPA, and first-year college grades. Their analysis showed that SAT and ACT scores are excellent at predicting students’ academic performance during their first year of college.

In fact, students who earned a perfect SAT or ACT score had a first-year GPA that was 0.43 points higher (on a 4.0 scale) than students who scored at the 75th percentile (approximately 1200 on the SAT or 25 on the ACT). Students scoring at the 75th percentile on standardized tests were also 42% more likely to struggle academically in their first year of college.

By contrast, the data show that high school GPA has little predictive power in forecasting first-year college grades. Students with a perfect 4.0 high school GPA earned first-year college GPAs that were less than .1 point higher than those with a 3.2 GPA (which represents the 75th percentile for high school GPA).

The study authors concluded that “test scores provide important information to measure applicants’ academic preparation that is not available elsewhere in the applicant file.”

The Predictive Power of Test Scores is Unbiased

One of the most common arguments against the use of standardized test scores in college admissions is that these tests are biased against students from less advantaged backgrounds. However, the study found that SAT and ACT scores show no calibration bias, meaning students from different backgrounds with the same scores achieve similar college success.

This confirms previous findings that have indicated that test optional policies actually hurt less advantaged students in the admissions process, leading them to withhold test scores that otherwise would have helped them to earn admission to selective colleges.

More Elite Colleges Are Likely to Return to Test Required Policies

As of 2025, six of the eight Ivy League schools require test scores for admission, while Columbia and Princeton remain test-optional. Other top universities, including MIT, Stanford, Caltech, Georgia Tech, Georgetown, NYU, and Johns Hopkins, have also reinstated test-required admission policies.

This latest research provides further evidence that requiring test scores can enhance admission decisions at highly selective colleges and universities. It is, therefore, likely that additional schools will return to test required policies in the coming months and years. Students in the class of 2027 and beyond would be wise to plan ahead by preparing for and taking the SAT or ACT, ensuring that they are ready to apply to their dream colleges regardless of changes to test policies.

Test Scores Can Confirm or Undermine a High GPA

This research comes at a time when colleges are increasingly concerned about high school grade inflation. Since 2016, the average high school GPA has risen by nearly .3 points, even as other metrics of achievement have remained flat or even declined. Pandemic-era district policies have only exacerbated the trend, leaving colleges concerned about what students’ grades really say about their academic abilities.

This doesn’t mean that high school GPA isn’t an extremely important factor in college admissions decisions—it consistently remains the top-ranked factor in surveys of college admissions officers. After all, high school GPA represents four years’ worth of effort. Even if they no longer reflect academic ability as strongly as before, high school grades still demonstrate a student’s dedication, work ethic, and attentiveness.

However, in light of this new research, it is now fair to say that standardized test scores can shed new light on high school GPA. Given that standardized test scores better predict college performance, and thus academic ability, high SAT or ACT scores can serve as confirmation of a strong high school GPA. Conversely, low or absent SAT or ACT scores may undermine a high GPA by indicating that the great high school grades may not reflect actual academic ability.

This is one reason why it is beneficial to submit strong SAT or ACT scores even at test-optional colleges: these strong test scores prove a student’s academic chops, further assuring colleges that the applicant would succeed at their institution.