Yale University announced on Thursday that it will resume requiring applicants to submit standardized test (SAT) scores for the fall 2025 class, ending its test-optional policies that became the norm during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The university is concerned that test-optional policies might have inadvertently disadvantaged students from lower-income backgrounds. Recently, Dartmouth College made a similar decision after new research—by Dartmouth and Brown University—indicated that standardized test scores are better predictors of first-year college performance than high school grades.
However, Yale’s new policy will be “test flexible”, meaning students can submit scores from subject-based exams like Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate tests instead of SAT or ACT scores.
Several colleges, including Yale and MIT, are reevaluating their pandemic-era admission criteria to ensure fairness, especially after the Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling against race-conscious admissions.
But, around 80% of four-year colleges in the US, including Harvard and Columbia, maintain test-optional policies for the coming fall, says the FairTest organization