While numerous well-known colleges are reverting to their old standardized testing policies for 2025, requiring applicants to submit their SAT or ACT scores, the future remains dominated by test-optional policies. According to Crimson Education, a global organization of admissions officers, on September 25, 2025, Dartmouth, Yale, Brown, Harvard, Caltech, University of Miami and the University of Texas at Austin are on the list of notable colleges returning to mandatory testing for the 2025-2026 admissions cycle. The University of Pennsylvania, Carnegie Mellon University, Johns Hopkins University, Stanford and Cornell will all be test-mandatory by 2030.
The SAT and the ACT are the two standardized tests that colleges and universities most widely accept. However, the SAT is more commonly taken by students; more than 1.97 million high school students took the SAT in 2024, while 1.4 million students took the ACT, according to the College Board.
A Look Inside Standardized Testing Requirements
“These schools [Harvard and Caltech] are among nearly 2,000 colleges across the country that dropped test score requirements over the last few years, a trend that escalated during the pandemic when it was harder for students to get to test sites,” reported a New York Times article published in April 2024. The article states that dropping test score requirements helped colleges diversify and increase their applicant pool by encouraging underrepresented applicants who might otherwise be discouraged from applying because of their scores.
Upper School Deans Department Chair and Director of College Guidance Emily Gardiner said that pre-COVID there was a “healthy number of test-optional colleges,” but post-COVID that number drastically increased.
The previous trend away from test-mandatory “reflects a backlash against standardized tests that began long before the pandemic, and many people have hailed the change as a victory for equity in higher education,” according to a January 2024 New York Times article. In the same article, author David Leonhardt writes that standardized test scores provide a more reliable assessment of a student than grades, in part because of grade inflation in recent years. Grade inflation is where teachers award higher grades for the same quality of work over time, and this trend has escalated recently, according to the U.S Department of Education.
On June 20, 2023, Brown University President Christina Paxson explained the reason for the shift to requiring test scores, citing that, “Careful statistical work by one of Brown’s faculty members shows that students with higher SAT or ACT scores are less likely to encounter academic difficulty at Brown.” She added that standardized test scores are a much better predictor of academic success than high school grades, which “carry the complication of being increasingly subject to grade inflation,” according to Paxson. “Standardized tests have the advantage of being standardized; it’s an objective assessment of how you’re doing on those types of questions,” added Assistant Head of School, Academics Michal Hershkovitz.
While standardized tests do offer a data set that can be helpful to college admissions officers, there is “frequently the case of a student who might not do well on a standardized test but would succeed tremendously in college,” said Hershkovitz. Colleges understood this, and in tandem with the inability to physically go to testing areas during COVID, the trend in test-optional policies increased.
However, test-optional colleges cannot eliminate all bias, such as the relevance of SAT or ACT scores. Students who were at or above the 25th percentile for their scores were twice as likely to get into a test-optional school if they submitted their scores, according to College Vine, an organization dedicated to helping students navigate the college process. The article added that even students below the 25th percentile were more likely to get in if they submitted their scores.
How Poly and Other Schools Prepare Students for Taking the SAT and ACT
PSAT (short for Preliminary SAT) Testing Day took place at Poly on October 22 and 23 for sophomores and juniors, simulating the experience of taking the actual SAT. “The SAT is scoring you as you go, where the ACT is scored in a more conventional way. The ACT questions don’t change, while the SAT questions adapt to your answers,” said Gardiner. Another primary difference between the two is that the ACT has four shorter modules, including science, while the SAT has two longer ones, limited to verbal and math. Despite these differences, though, Gardiner stated that colleges view and weigh the ACT and SAT the same, having evolved away from standardizing the SAT.
Poly, like most schools, according to Gardiner, does not offer or require the PACT during school hours, just the PSAT, as juniors are eligible for the National Merit Scholarship. The scholarship “helps distinguish a student and a school numerically,” said Gardiner. Therefore, the school or student can gain recognition by taking the PSAT that they cannot from the PACT, and can choose to take the PACT on their own if they wish.
Upper School Division Coordinator Aminah McKay said that the PSATs are helpful because, “if you start in 10th grade, your score will give you leverage to know what’s to come for the following year, because you’ll take the PSATs again in 11th grade,” a process meant to prepare students for taking the actual SAT or ACT and one of the many ways Poly tries to prepare students for the college application process.
In January, sophomores will have a session with Compass Prep where they can “hear from a test expert, not the adults, what the differences between these tests are,” said Gardiner. Compass Prep is a company that provides tutoring, extensive SAT and ACT Test Prep, and practice tests for both of those. Additionally, in February, soon after Compass Prep, sophomores, juniors and seniors will have College Night, an opportunity for students and their families to learn about the college process.
“My blanket advice to all Poly kids is give yourself a chance to get the best score you can,” said Gardiner. “However, every kid is different, so the advice she gives is for students to talk to their deans. “All of us can answer questions about testing. It’s one of our favorite topics.”
In terms of deciding which test to take, Student Body President Anna Brandmeyer ’26 said that she made a decision and “didn’t think much about it,” choosing to go “all in on the ACT.” Lauren Pauls ’27 said, “choosing which test you take doesn’t affect that much in the long term once you have actually started studying.” This approach aligns with Gardiner’s mantra to “give yourself a chance to max out your score,” rather than spending too much time deciding.
Pauls decided to take the ACT the summer before her junior year, after taking many practice tests. In junior year, with “so much going on,” she said it can be “hard” to reach out to deans for help and guidance. “I feel a little lost about where to even start.”
Cohort is a time meant to help bridge the gap between students and their Deans, providing a safe space to ask questions and receive helpful responses. However, it is also up to students to ask questions and reach out to their Dean, which can be initiated during the allocated cohort time. When navigating the ever-changing college application process, Brandmeyer said the most important part “is really advocating for yourself.”
Looking forward, Gardiner encourages students to “take each one,” and from there, can decide whether to go test-optional or submit scores, especially in a world where colleges are reverting back to requiring these scores.
