BUZZ
Key Takeaways
- Princeton University will reinstate the requirement for undergraduate applicants to submit SAT or ACT scores starting with the 2027–28 admissions cycle after a five-year review of data from the test-optional period.
- The decision was influenced by findings that students who submitted test scores performed better academically at Princeton, reinforcing the role of standardized tests as a predictor of student success.
- Several Ivy League schools, including the University of Pennsylvania, Yale, Brown, and Dartmouth, have also reinstated their standardized testing requirements, citing similar conclusions about the predictive value of test scores for college performance.
Princeton University announced Thursday it is reinstating the requirement for undergraduate applicants to submit standardized test scores starting with the 2027–28 admissions cycle.
“First-year and transfer applicants seeking to enroll in fall 2028 will need to submit either SAT or ACT scores,” the school’s announcement reads.
The university emphasized that admissions decisions are not determined by a single factor.
“Standardized testing is just one element of the University’s comprehensive and holistic application review. There are no minimum test score requirements for admission. All information in each student’s application is considered in the student’s individual context,” it reads.
The announcement also states the move comes after a five-year review of data from the test-optional period, which showed that students who submitted test scores generally performed better academically at Princeton than those who did not.
In June 2020, the university suspended its standardized testing requirement for the 2020–21 admissions cycle due to the COVID-19 pandemic and limited access to testing sites. The pause was later extended through the 2023–24 cycle, The Daily Princetonian reported.
Several other Ivy League schools have also announced in recent years that they will reinstate standardized testing requirements.
Earlier this year, the University of Pennsylvania announced the return of standardized testing in admissions “with the goal of bringing clarity and transparency to the application process,” an announcement from the school stated.
“With this approach, testing complements a student’s existing accomplishments and can offer additional relevant information in our comprehensive and holistic admission process,” it stated.
In 2024, Yale, Brown, and Dartmouth brought back the requirement after they had ditched it in part by arguing the tests advance systemic race inequity, The College Fix previously reported.
Like Princeton, Yale attributed the decision to test scores indicating student success.
The school’s “research from before and after the pandemic has consistently demonstrated that, among all application components, test scores are the single greatest predictor of a student’s future Yale grades,” Yale’s announcement reads.
At the time, Jeremy Wayne Tate, the founder of the Classic Learning Test, told The College Fix in an email that “After a few years of being test-optional, colleges have discovered that GPA alone is inadequate to predict college success.”
“Grading varies wildly between different schools whereas a standardized test allows colleges to compare apples to apples,” he said.
Additionally, a new working paper published on the National Bureau of Economic Research website finds that standardized test scores are stronger predictors of college performance than high school GPA, even after controlling for race, gender, and socioeconomic status.
Columbia is now the only Ivy League that still does not require standardized testing.
