The SAT Is Back—And This Time, It’s Not Going Anywhere
By Christopher Rim | June 17, 2026, 05:21am EDT
With Columbia announcing that it would retire its “permanent” test-optional policy, the era of test-optional admissions has officially ended at the nation’s most elite universities.
Last week, Columbia University became the final Ivy League school to reinstate a standardized testing requirement for undergraduate admissions, announcing that SAT or ACT scores will be mandatory for all applicants beginning with the 2027–2028 admissions cycle. The announcement, made just days after Yale’s own reinstatement of test-mandatory policies after a brief season of being test-flexible, closes a chapter that began in the spring of 2020, when COVID-19 disruptions led schools across the nation to suspend the mandatory submission of test scores.
In addition to the pragmatic concerns of the pandemic era, the early 2020s saw widespread criticism of standardized testing as a force of inequality. The SAT, in particular, had become a flashpoint in the broader national conversation about race and socioeconomic disparity in higher education. In addition to offering logistical accommodations, test-optional and test-blind policies were framed as overdue corrections to a system that privileged wealthy, white students over others.
However, institutions reinstating standardized testing requirements have cast doubt on these prior assumptions. In 2024, The New York Times published a far-ranging evaluation of the SAT, challenging popular notions that the test promotes inequality and that it is not a good metric for success in college. The article notes that standardized test scores tend to be a better metric for predicting success in college than grade point average, quoting M.I.T. Dean of Admission Stuart Schmill, who states: “Just getting straight A’s is not enough information for us to know whether the students are going to succeed or not.” More recently, Yale College Dean Pericles Lewis noted that the college’s council found that standardized testing not only predicts academic success, but even encourages greater diversity: “SAT and ACT scores are strong predictors of a student’s future Yale academic performance, and, when considered thoughtfully as part of a whole person review, they can help identify well-prepared candidates, especially those from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds.”
Columbia’s reversal is remarkable precisely because the school had gone further than any of its peers. Just two years ago, in March of 2023, Columbia became the first—and only—Ivy League school to indefinitely drop standardized testing requirements. Now, just three years later, Columbia has reversed course entirely, citing a “multi-year faculty review” that concluded test scores “were a useful indicator of potential student success.”
With Columbia’s announcement, all eight Ivy League universities have now returned to requiring standardized test scores—and more top colleges may continue to follow suit.
In recent days, the UC Academic Senate revealed plans to reevaluate the UC system’s longstanding test-blind policy, considering whether the university system—which is home to renowned institutions such as UC Berkeley and UCLA—should take standardized tests into account in the admissions process. More than 1,400 faculty members from across the UC system have signed petitions demanding the reinstatement of SAT and ACT requirements, warning of what they describe as catastrophic preparation gaps among incoming students. Though STEM faculty led the charge, humanities and social science professors quickly joined with their own letter, arguing that the damage from test-blind admissions extends far beyond the disciplines in math and science.
What These Changes Mean for Students
For students anticipating the college application process in coming years, it is important to recognize that top schools are renewing their focus on academic compatibility. Through standardized tests and other application materials, students should be seeking to demonstrate their academic proficiency and preparedness for rigorous collegiate coursework. The students who will benefit most from this new landscape are those who begin preparing early and systematically by seeking to understand the testing format, take challenging courses in order to prepare for the material on the test early, and set ambitious yet achievable goals with the support of an expert advisor. Juniors who wait until spring often leave themselves little room to improve, whereas sophomores who take a diagnostic early understand where they stand and have time to address gaps.
A strong score remains one of the most reliable signals a student can send regarding their academic qualifications. At the same time, every school that has reinstated testing has been careful to note that scores are one component of a holistic review: a strong score won’t overcome a generally weak application, and a slightly lower score won’t disqualify an otherwise exceptional candidate. Top schools evaluate test scores within the context of the resources available to the applicant, the rigor of their school, and their overall academic profile.
The last six years have proven that removing objective metrics from the admissions process doesn’t inherently reduce subjectivity. Amidst the changing standardized testing requirements, a holistic review remains the staple of the admissions process at highly selective institutions. As they seek to achieve their goal scores and prove their academic skills, students should seek dedicated guidance to ensure that their entire profile will stand out to admissions officers and convey who they truly are.
Originally published on Forbes on June 17, 2026
