Both Princeton University and Yale University have announced they will continue to use a test-optional admission policy for another year.
With those decisions, all eight of the Ivy League universities will be test-optional through at least the 2023 admissions cycle according to Bob Schaeffer, Executive Director of FairTest: the National Center for Fair and Open Testing, a leading advocate for ending the use of standardized tests like the ACT and SAT in the college admissions process.
Some of the Ivies have extended their test-optional policy even longer. Columbia has announced it will continue to be test-optional through Fall, 2024 admissions, and Harvard has said it would extend its policy through Fall, 2026.
Yale
In response to the ongoing disruptions associated with the Covid-19 pandemic, Yale will extend its test-optional admissions policy for an additional year. All applicants for undergraduate admission for fall 2023 enrollment may apply with or without ACT or SAT scores.
Yale is encouraging applicants who have taken the ACT or SAT to consider including their scores with their applications, “even if those scores are below the middle 50% ranges ...” But for applicants without scores, the university said it will place greater weight on other parts of the application, such as high school transcripts, recommendation letters, and essays.
Yale also indicated that if public health conditions improve, it will decide on a long-term standardized testing policy in winter 2023. Its decision will be informed by the data and insights generated from the 2021, 2022, and 2023 admissions cycles.
Princeton
Citing the hurdles students have had to overcome due to the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic and the continuing disruptions to coursework and the lack of access to the ACT and SAT, Princeton announced last week that it “will continue to operate in a test optional environment for first-year applicants applying during the 2022-23 cycle for Princeton’s Class of 2027.”
It assured students that if they opted to “apply to Princeton without an ACT or SAT (they) will not be at a disadvantage in our process. We will continue with a holistic evaluation of each application and will continue to assess testing requirements for students applying after next year’s cycle.”
According to Schaefer, with their recent decisions, Princeton and Yale are joining more than 1,500 other U.S. colleges and universities in not requiring fall 2023 applicants to submit ACT or SAT results. More than 1,800 schools are test-optional for 2022 admissions. He called the announcements “ a recognition that test-optional policies have become the ‘new normal’ in undergraduate admissions.”
Schaefer continued, “Consistent with the track-records of other schools that do not require test scores, we expect that Yale and Princeton will experience more applicants, better academically qualified applicants, and more diversity of all sorts in their applicant pools. For teenagers considering these and other premier schools the policy extensions will be reassurance that they will be evaluated as ‘more than a score.’ That's why ACT/SAT-optional admissions is a win/win for both students and institutions. Simply put: standardized test scores are not needed to make fair and accurate admissions decisions.”
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