College admissions policies around SAT and ACT scores have shifted sharply in recent years. Some schools require them, others make reporting optional, and still others don’t use scores at all, writes Alyssa Mathews in the student newspaper at Los Alamitos High School in California.
| Year | Non-required | Source/Note |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 1,050 | FairTest: ~1,050 colleges test-optional (~ 40%) |
| 2020 | 1,600 | NACAC: ~1,600 waived requirements (> 1/2) |
| 2022 | 1,785 | FairTest: record 1,785+ test-optional for Fall 2022 (~ 2/3) |
| 2023 | 1,700 | Higher Ed Dive: 1,700+ non-required for Fall 2023 |
| 2025 | 1,825 | FairTest: 1,825+ non-required (> 80%) for Fall 2025 |
The line graph illustrates the shift in the share of US four-year colleges that do not require SAT or ACT scores since 2019. The pandemic triggered a sharp rise in test-optional and test-blind policies, pushing the proportion from about 40% in 2019 to more than 80% by the 2025 admissions cycle. The 2025 figure (> 1,825 colleges) represents about 82 percent of all US colleges.
While the overall trajectory has been upward, the story isn’t uniform: several highly selective universities, including Harvard, Yale, MIT, Caltech, Georgetown, the University of Texas at Austin, and Dartmouth, have recently reinstated test requirements, signaling a partial reversal at the top even as most institutions continue to make standardized tests optional or irrelevant.
The biggest test-blind system remains the University of California system, which served a record 236,070 undergraduate students as of January 2025.
Over the next few years, it remains to be seen whether more schools will revert to test requirements or maintain optional or blind policies. Shifts in test formats, such as the digital SAT and new ACT options, may also influence access and fairness.
Finally, with affirmative action no longer permitted, colleges may reassess the role of SAT and ACT scores relative to other measures of student potential. We’ll be watching those trends as well.
