Selective Colleges Reinstate Testing, See Drop in Applications
Credit: Bloomberg / Getty Images- Many elite colleges reinstated standardized test requirements for the fall 2024 admissions cycle.
- Some of those institutions realized far fewer applications than the previous cycle.
- Several colleges that remained test-optional saw significant increases in application volume.
- A resumption of mandatory testing has implications for selectivity, student diversity, and national rankings.
Following a pandemic-induced moratorium, several elite colleges reinstated standardized test requirements for the fall 2024 admissions cycle. Students hoping to join the class of 2029 had to submit SAT or ACT scores.
Other top schools, however, remained test-optional.
It turns out many of the colleges requiring tests received far fewer applications than during the fall 2023 admissions cycle, while some test-optional institutions experienced record numbers.
Coincidence? No, say admissions insiders.
But besides having fewer applicants, what possible repercussions do colleges face after reinstating standardized tests?
Colleges See Drop in Applications
Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, most colleges dropped standardized test requirements starting with the fall 2020 admissions cycle. It didn’t make sense to gather hundreds of students together at test sites given health risks, and the digital versions of the tests weren’t yet available.
As a result, applications to selective institutions skyrocketed. Emboldened by not having to submit subpar test scores, thousands of students who might not have otherwise applied to top schools did so.
Applications rose by 20, 30, even 40% or more at many colleges. Naturally, acceptance rates dropped significantly.
Want to learn about standardized testing in college admissions? Read more:
But now, with the pandemic in the rearview mirror, colleges have begun reinstating testing. And it’s not just because testing sites are once again open.
One reason is that studies have shown that at highly selective colleges, test scores are the best predictor of academic success. That’s the main reason why the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was quick to reinstate testing: Outstanding quantitative scores translate to higher achievement at the math-heavy school.
The other main reason is that during the testing moratorium, colleges such as Dartmouth discovered many students from historically excluded or underserved backgrounds were withholding scores that were actually competitive given students’ circumstances, even if the scores fell below the college’s average. By remaining test-optional, selective colleges weren’t finding as many “diamonds in the rough.”
As such, several top colleges returned to testing with the fall 2024 cycle. Harvard University even reneged on its initial promise to remain test-optional until fall 2026, reinstituting a test requirement two years earlier.
At many of these schools, application volume fell. Dartmouth experienced an 11% decline from the previous year’s total, while Yale, which also returned to testing last fall, saw a decrease of more than 7,000 applications — 12.5% lower than fall 2023’s total.
Brown University had its smallest applicant pool since 2019, losing roughly 8,000 applicants compared to averages over the past five years.
In turn, Brown’s acceptance rate rose slightly, from 5.15% to 5.65%. Dartmouth’s increased from 5.3% to 6%, and Yale’s went up from 3.73% to 4.59%.
(Harvard remains circumspect in its official announcements regarding admissions, offering scant information, though statistics will eventually become public via the Common Data Set.)
Did the return to test requirements cause this reduction in applications? Absolutely, says John Birney, associate director of college counseling at Solomon Admissions Consulting and a former admissions officer at Johns Hopkins University.
“It’s not a surprise to see that applications at test-required schools are going down,” Birney told BestColleges.
Matthew Riley, director and senior admissions consultant with Ivy Academic Prep, believes that, despite the increased acceptance rates, the return to testing is a godsend for overtaxed admissions offices.
“I think [universities] got this huge influx of underqualified students, and I think it overwhelmed and overburdened the admissions offices,” Riley told BestColleges. “Maybe bringing back testing was a way for them to cut back on all those superfluous applications.”
Test-Optional Colleges See Surge in Applications
While highly selective colleges with test requirements saw their application volume drop, those that remain test-optional experienced a spike in applications.
The University of Pennsylvania received more than 72,000 applications during the fall 2024 application cycle, up from the previous year’s institutional record of 65,000. Beginning in fall 2025, Penn will once again require the SAT or ACT.
Cornell University, also test-optional until next fall, saw a 13.3% increase in admitted students but didn’t reveal its application total or acceptance rate.
Harvard and Penn also don’t publish acceptance rates, though it’s logical to infer that, assuming these schools don’t seek a larger incoming class, the rates will decrease accordingly.
Neither does Princeton University publicize its acceptance rate, but it does note that applications have increased significantly since the university went test-optional. That may or may not translate into a lower acceptance rate because Princeton is expanding the size of its undergraduate population over several years.
Selective test-optional colleges outside the Ivy League also experienced application spikes.
Duke University received roughly 4,500 more applications than in the last admissions cycle, and Emory University had almost 3,000 more. Northwestern University’s total also increased by about 3,000 applicants, as did the pool at Vanderbilt University.
Among test-optional liberal arts colleges, Amherst College received over 2,100 more, while rival Williams College saw a modest growth of 161 more applicants.
Amherst’s record total of 15,818 applicants resulted in an acceptance rate of about 7%. A continent away, the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) had a slightly higher acceptance rate, at 9%, but this year it received a whopping 173,651 applications, making it the most applied-to school in the nation.
When UCLA went test-optional in 2020, applications increased by more than 30,000 the following year. Now, as with the rest of the University of California system, UCLA is test-blind, meaning it won’t consider test scores even if they’re submitted.
One outlier bucking this trend is Columbia University, which, despite being permanently test-optional, saw a slight decrease in fall 2024 applications compared to the previous year, though the recent campus turmoil and controversy surrounding funding cuts might have dissuaded some students from applying.
As in the case of applications decreasing following a return to test requirements, the growth of applications can be attributed, at least in part, to remaining test-optional.
Jayson Weingarten, a senior admissions consultant with Ivy Coach and a former admissions officer at Penn, told BestColleges in an email that the return to testing creates a barrier that will hinder application submissions.
“People who were going to apply to Dartmouth reconsidered and directed their ‘one more app’ toward Penn,” Weingarten said.
Rice Adopts ‘Test-Recommended’ Policy
The reduction in application volume shouldn’t have surprised university officials, admissions experts say. But in an age when acceptance rates make headlines and signal an institution’s desirability, policy decisions leading to a decrease in selectivity must be weighed carefully.
“Colleges have to understand at the cabinet level that if you’re going to reduce the overall applicant pool, you’re going to increase your admit rate,” Birney said.
It’s not just the number of applicants colleges should consider, Birney added, but also the nature of the applicant pool. Studies have shown that test-optional colleges enroll classes with 10-12% more underrepresented minority students. Removing the testing barrier increases access for first-generation and other underserved applicants.
Yet as noted earlier, elite colleges argue just the opposite — that test requirements serve to enhance diversity by enabling students from under-resourced communities to demonstrate their ability to succeed academically despite limitations.
Although higher acceptance rates may not sit well with admissions offices, the metric doesn’t influence the U.S. News rankings. The magazine hasn’t factored acceptance rates into its formula since 2019.
But it does consider SAT and ACT scores. For a college’s median score to be weighed, it must report scores for at least half of the entering class. With that in mind, test-optional colleges will do whatever it takes to meet that threshold, Nat Smitobol, a college admissions counselor with IvyWise and a former admissions officer at New York University, explained to BestColleges.
Smitobol offered Wake Forest University as an example of an institution engineering its admissions process to achieve the 50% testing threshold. Although it’s a test-optional school, Wake Forest will favor students with test scores, he said, especially high ones.
“If you have a big test score, history and numbers tell us that Wake is going to be looking for those kids in regular decision,” Smitobol said. “Even though Wake is test-optional, your chances are just not as high if you can’t give them a test score.”
Why is reaching that threshold important? Because in a test-optional environment, median test scores skew higher. Students with higher scores are more likely to submit them, which raises the average.
That helps explain why acceptance rates for students submitting test scores are higher than for those who don’t. In a recent year, 17% of students who submitted scores to Emory University were accepted, compared to 9% who applied without scores. At Yale, only 2% of applicants without scores were admitted.
Of course, if every selective school follows this strategy, an institution doesn’t have a comparative advantage. But if a school fails to reach the 50% threshold, it’s certainly at a disadvantage.
At Rice University, about 80% of entering students submitted test scores during this cycle, Yvonne Romero, vice president for enrollment, told BestColleges. For this year, Rice decided to become “test-recommended,” encouraging students to submit scores but not requiring them to do so.
Applications to Rice rose 13% this admissions cycle, the result of several factors, including a commitment to generous financial aid packages, Romero said.
During the university’s test-optional years, beginning with the pandemic, Rice began receiving fewer applications with test scores. It chose not to fully implement test requirements, though, because some students don’t have ready access to testing venues — particularly in California owing to the widespread adoption of test-blind admissions.
Still, the university acknowledges the predictive nature of standardized tests in the context of a holistic assessment.
Rice’s test-recommended policy “signals even more than before that we still find tests valuable and meaningful in our evaluation process,” Romero said, “but we are still giving students the chance to decide whether they’d like to submit or not submit.”
In light of the hurdle standardized testing represents for many students, universities should take measures to offset the potential repercussions, Smitobol said. Strategies include offering more financial aid to incentivize students, as Rice did, and perhaps making the application less onerous by removing or shortening supplemental essays.
“It would be poor enrollment management if it was just a return to testing,” he said, “and nothing else in conjunction with that.”