Stanford Reinstates ACT/SAT Test Requirement
Credit: David Madison / Getty Images- Students applying for fall 2025 undergraduate admission to Stanford must provide their SAT or ACT scores.
- The university paused its testing requirement in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Several universities — including Harvard, Dartmouth, Yale, and Brown — have recently reinstituted standardized test requirements.
Stanford University will resume requiring SAT/ACT scores for students applying for undergraduate admission beginning in fall 2025, the university announced Friday.
The university paused its standardized testing requirements in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, offering undergraduate applicants the choice to submit their scores. The test-optional policy will remain for students applying for fall 2024 admission.
In its announcement, Stanford said that test scores are an “important predictor of academic performance” at the university, a claim it says is backed by a review conducted by the faculty Committee on Undergraduate Admission and Financial Aid.
“Test scores represent only one part of a holistic review of each applicant to the university, for which academic potential is the primary criterion for admission,” the announcement read. “…The renewed testing requirement will allow Stanford to consider the fullest array of information in support of each student’s application.”
In recent months, several other Ivy Plus institutions have announced they will reinstate standardized test requirements that were previously put on hold during the pandemic.
In February, Dartmouth College became the first Ivy to reinstitute standardized testing, citing an internal study that showed SAT and ACT scores could help identify high-achieving applicants from middle- and low-income backgrounds.
In March, Yale University and Brown University announced that they were bringing back testing requirements in fall 2024, echoing Dartmouth’s sentiment that test scores can aid students from underrepresented backgrounds in the admissions process.
While Brown will require either SAT or ACT scores, Yale announced it will adopt a “test-flexible” requirement, allowing students to submit Advanced Placement (AP) or International Baccalaureate (IB) exam scores in place of the SAT or ACT. So Yale applicants will have four options to submit standardized test results.
“When used thoughtfully as part of a whole-person review process,” Yale’s statement claims, “tests can help increase rather than decrease diversity in our class,” while inviting students to apply without test scores “can, inadvertently, disadvantage students from low-income, first-generation, and rural backgrounds.”
In April, Harvard University announced it would resume requiring SAT or ACT scores for admission, starting for applicants applying for admission for fall 2024. The university will also accept AP or IB scores in “exceptional cases” if a student is unable to access one of the two required tests.
“Standardized tests are a means for all students, regardless of their background and life experience, to provide information that is predictive of success in college and beyond,” Edgerley Family Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Hopi Hoekstra said in a statement.
“… In short, more information, especially such strongly predictive information, is valuable for identifying talent from across the socioeconomic range.”
Additionally, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Georgetown University, and the California Institute of Technology have changed their policies to require standardized testing.
Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania, however, have not joined their Ivy Plus counterparts. In March 2023, Columbia announced it would remain permanently test-optional, while Penn has extended its test-optional policy through the 2024-2025 academic year.