Final Days for “Test Optional” at Colleges

Harvard University has succumbed to peer pressure. It has joined fellow Ivy League institutions Yale, Brown, and Dartmouth in announcing a return to the long-standing tradition of requiring standardized test scores of students seeking admission. 

 

All applicants to the Class of 2029, who will be filing their applications in the fall and winter of this year, need to submit SAT or ACT scores to be considered for admission, barring unusual circumstances.  This may leave some students, who were planning to apply “test optional,” scrambling to prepare for, and take, an all-important SAT or ACT exam in the coming months. 

 

The last SAT administrations of 2024 will take place on August 24^th, October 5^th, November 2^nd, and December 7^th.   The ACT will be offered on July 13^th, September 14^th, October 26^th, and December 14^th.  

 

Other colleges and universities, popular with New Jersey students, that require test scores include Georgetown University, Purdue University, Georgia Tech, University of Georgia, University of Florida, Florida State, Caltech, MIT, and the U.S. Naval, Air Force, and Military academies.

Colleges that are currently “test optional” are still utilizing submitted SAT scores in the admissions process and the allotment of scholarship funds. Students without SAT scores are required, prior to the start of freshman year, to take placement tests at the college they will be attending. If they do not score high enough on any of these tests (typically required in English and Math), they are placed in “remedial” courses which require full tuition but award no college credits.

 

Many schools, even those that claim to be test optional, report that the vast majority of accepted students had taken the SAT or ACT exam.  Colleges know that the SAT (or ACT) is the one level playing field on which they can compare all of their applicants. While a student’s grade point average (GPA) is important, colleges know that teachers and schools have widely varying grading policies, which makes it impossible to compare students, nationwide, utilizing this criterion. 

 

Almost all institutions, with the exception of the University of California schools, will consider standardized scores, if submitted. Now, more and more schools are requiring them. 

Susan Alaimo is the founder & director of Collegebound Review, offering PSAT/SAT^® preparation & private college advising by Ivy League educated instructors. Visit CollegeboundReview.com or call 908-369-5362.