for further information:
Harry Feder, Esq. 917 273-8939
Bob Schaeffer239 699-0468
for immediate release, Wednesday, February 21, 2024
OVERWHELMING MAJORITY OF U.S. COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES
REMAIN ACT/SAT-OPTIONAL OR TEST-BLIND/SCORE-FREE FORFALL 2025;
More than 80% of U.S. four-year colleges and universities will not require applicants for fall 2025 admissions to submit ACT/SAT scores according to anew tally by FairTest, the National Center for Fair & Open Testing. That’s a total of at least 1,825 of the nation’s bachelor-degree granting institutions, with more schools extending test-optional policies every week.
“Despite a media frenzy around a single Ivy League school reinstating testing requirements, ACT/SAT-optional and test-blind/score-free policies remain the ‘new normal’ in undergraduate admissions,” explained FairTest Executive Director Harry Feder. “Test-optional policies continue to dominate at national universities, state flagships, and selective liberal arts colleges because they typically result in more applicants, academically stronger applicants and more diversity.”
A recent study of ACT/SAT score submission by the Common Application group of 1000+ colleges and universities found “more and more students choosing not to report than to report. Growth is meaningfully faster over the past year for students not reporting test scores . . . “ (https://www.commonapp.org/files/Common-App-Deadline-Updates-2024.02.14.pdf)
FairTest Public Education Director Bob Schaeffer added, “High school students, parents, and counselors should understand that ACT/SAT scores will not be required by an overwhelming majority of undergraduate campuses for the foreseeable future. The introduction of the digital SAT will not change that reality because the revised test is not a better or fairer predictor of undergraduate success.”
Among well-known institutions whose test-optional policies continue at least through fall 2025 are Columbia, Cornell, Emory, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Notre Dame, Princeton, Stanford, the University of Chicago, and Vanderbilt. ACT/SAT scores will also not be required at such liberal arts colleges as Amherst, Middlebury, Swarthmore, Wesleyan, and Williams. Major public campuses in most states, including Colorado, Illinois, Missouri, Oregon, Utah, and Washington, remain test-optional for current high school seniors and juniors. The entire University of California and California State University systems are permanently test-blind/score-free.
FairTest’s frequently updated list of schools that do not require all or many applicants to submit ACT/SAT scores before admissions decisions are made is available free online at:https://fairtest.org/test-optional-list/
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ACT/SAT-OPTIONAL & TEST-FREE UNDERGRADUATE ADMISSION BY THE NUMBERS
1,075ACT/SAT-optional schools pre-pandemic (as of March 15, 2020)
1,700schools did not require ACT/SAT scores for fall 2020
1,775schools did not require ACT/SAT scores for fall 2021
1,825schools did not require ACT/SAT scores for fall 2022
1,904schools did not require ACT/SAT scores for fall 2023
2,025schools did not require ACT/SAT scores for fall 2024
1,825+schools have already extended ACT/SAT-optional or test-blind/score-free admissions
through at least fall 2025. About 200 schools have not yet announced their policies
for the next admissions cycle — more are extending every week.
1,700+of these schools are “permanently” ACT/SAT-optional or test-blind/score-free
2,278total number of 4-year schools per USDOE National Center for Education Statisticshttps://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/csa
