Princeton University will again require applicants to submit SAT or ACT scores, bolstering a growing retreat from test-optional admissions policies nationwide.
The Ivy League school’s decision to resume assessing scores for the fall 2027 enrollment cycle follows similar reversals at top private and public universities over the past year. Dozens of universities from Harvard to Stanford suspended SAT requirements in March 2020 as applications from Black and low-income students plunged during pandemic lockdowns of K-12 schools.
Princeton noted in a statement this month that it “paused the standardized testing requirement for undergraduate admission” because of “the COVID-19 pandemic and lack of access to testing centers,” then extended the pause for several more years.
“The decision to resume testing requirements follows a review of five years of data from the test-optional period, which found that academic performance at Princeton was stronger for students who chose to submit test scores than for students who did not,” the university said.
According to Princeton, tests will remain “just one element” in a “comprehensive and holistic application review,” and there is no minimum score for acceptance. The university will continue to waive SAT and ACT requirements for active-duty military service members, citing their challenges in finding testing centers.
Most higher education insiders reached for comment hailed the decision as the latest sign of higher education returning to merit-based admission standards.
“The re-institution of the SAT stems from two well-established research findings: test scores predict for college success better than grades do, and the SAT also helps colleges identify promising students from disadvantaged backgrounds,” said Jonathan Zimmerman, a professor in the history of education at the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League school that restored testing mandates for the fall 2025 application cycle.
Mr. Zimmerman noted that MIT admitted its most diverse class ever when it became the first elite private campus to reinstate admissions test mandates for the fall 2022 cycle.
According to multiple reports, selective universities that reject over 90% of applicants focused more on subjective essays and extracurricular activities during the test-optional craze, favoring applicants who struggled academically.
“Princeton’s decision shows higher education is swinging back toward meritocracy,” said Shaan Patel, founder and CEO of Prep Expert, a Las Vegas-based company that produces SAT preparation materials. “The test-optional movement began with good intentions, but ultimately made admissions less fair.”
Some racial justice advocates disagreed. They lamented Princeton’s policy change as a surrender to the Trump administration, which has threatened to yank federal funding from elite schools that give preferential treatment to minorities.
“I think this is a bit of capitulating to the Trump administration’s demand that we make university admission more about merit, even though it already is,” said Tyrone C. Howard, an education professor specializing in racial equity at public UCLA, which does not consider applicants’ test scores. “And bottom line, this is really about getting access to more money.”
Bias complaints
Racial justice advocates have long argued that the SAT and ACT are culturally biased against low-income minorities and favor applicants from wealthy families with access to test prep resources.
Omekongo Dibinga, a professor of intercultural communications affiliated with American University’s Antiracist Research and Policy Center, said those socioeconomic disparities deepened during pandemic lockdowns that hit urban public schools the hardest.
“Many private, charter and high-performing public schools did not miss a beat during COVID, whereas poorer-performing schools declined even more,” said Mr. Dibinga, whose university remains test-optional. “Lastly, there is indeed proven cultural bias with these tests.”
Responding to decades of criticism from progressives, the nonprofit College Board overhauled the SAT in recent decades. In 2005, the group removed direct analogies and a Verbal Reasoning section that racial justice advocates accused of favoring White, native English speakers.
The College Board estimates that more than 2 million high school seniors in the class of 2025 took the SAT. That’s the largest number since 2019, the last graduation class before the pandemic.
“Real and persistent differences in educational opportunity and outcomes in America’s education system are reflected in all academic measures, including the SAT, but that does not mean the SAT is a biased instrument,” Jaslee Carayol, a College Board spokeswoman, said in an email this week. “Every SAT question undergoes rigorous review to identify and eliminate potential bias, and any item found to favor one group over another is removed.”
The National Center for Fair and Open Testing, an advocacy group known as FairTest that opposes standardized admissions assessments, estimates that 2,010 colleges nationwide remain test-optional, meaning they only consider scores if submitted.
Another 75 institutions are test-free, meaning they do not consider scores at all. There are nearly 4,000 degree-granting colleges and universities nationally.
Raising the bar
Most top universities announced their reversal of test-optional admissions under the Biden administration. Brown, Dartmouth, Cornell, Georgetown, the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Wisconsin at Madison all made the change last year.
The Trump administration has since threatened to withhold federal grants and scholarship funds from elite universities that fail to practice merit-based admissions, adding to the pressure to restore testing requirements.
The Washington Times has reached out to the White House for comment.
A spokesperson for Columbia, the last Ivy League campus with test-optional admissions, said the New York City school is “actively evaluating” its policy.
“The University continually reviews and assesses our admissions policies to ensure compliance with the law and alignment with our goal to attract strong students who will advance knowledge and learning at its highest levels and who will be successful in our rigorous undergraduate curriculum,” the Columbia spokesperson said.
Peter Wood, president of the conservative National Association of Scholars, predicted that more top universities will abolish test-optional admissions as they compete for the brightest students.
“The students who choose not to report their test scores to admissions departments are generally those who calculate that their scores are too low to make their applications competitive,” said Mr. Wood, a former associate provost at private Boston University.
• Sean Salai can be reached at ssalai@washingtontimes.com.
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