Stanford University announced Friday that it is reinstating the requirement for standardized scores in undergraduate admissions, becoming the latest in a small but growing number of elite colleges to return to the practice after abandoning it during the pandemic.
The change will take effect in fall 2025, and students applying for enrollment in fall 2026 and beyond will be required to provide SAT or ACT scores on their applications. Standardized test scores will remain optional for those applying this fall to enroll next year.
Other selective schools that in recent months have returned to requiring those test scores include Harvard, Brown, Yale, Dartmouth, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Georgetown, Purdue, California Institute of Technology and the University of Texas in Austin.
The test score requirement fell out of favor during the pandemic, as test dates were canceled during the lockdown and as critics raised concerns about standardized tests fueling inequality. About 2,000 colleges across the country made test scores optional on applications, at least temporarily, after the pandemic hit.
In a statement explaining the move, Stanford officials said a faculty committee on undergraduate admissions had found that test scores were “a significant predictor of academic performance at Stanford.” However, they said the scores will be “a part of a holistic review” of applicants that will also take into account factors such as achievement in the classroom, background and whether a student has worked or taken on family responsibilities.
Stanford’s reasoning was largely in line with that of other universities that made similar decisions. Many cited recent research showing that test scores help predict students’ grades in college and their chances of graduation and success after college. Grades are not as accurate predictors, researchers say, because of issues such as grade inflation that make it difficult to evaluate a student’s work. Studies have also shown that standardized tests can help universities find lower-income students and students of color who will thrive.
But critics of the test requirements say the exams favor students from wealthier families who can afford private tutors and test-prep classes. those whose first language is English. and those who are better examinees. Some opponents also say the test score requirements lead to less diverse student bodies.
Fair Test, an anti-testing organization, argues that colleges should keep test scores optional or not consider them at all in their admissions decisions.
“What the SAT and standardized tests in general seem to do better than anything else,” FairTest said in a recent report, “is whether your background is on the winning side of the existing birthright.”
While many schools across the nation have reinstated standardized test scores, Stanford’s rival across the bay, the University of California, Berkeley, is not likely to reinstate mandated scores anytime soon.
Students sued the University of California system in December 2019 over the test score requirement, making similar arguments about the tests being unfair to some. The UC regents voted in May 2020 to drop the requirement, but a judge later that year went further, saying the university system should bar its campuses from taking admissions scores at all.
The California State University system also dropped the testing requirement in 2022.
