With the SAT announcement on June 2nd, we’ve seen a flurry of highly selective schools become test optional (including Yale, Brown and Wash U as of today), as they acknowledge that the ability even to take the test may not be an option for many students. With this in mind, the College Board has made the following request, “[w]e therefore are asking our member colleges to be flexible toward students who can’t submit scores, who submit them later, or who did not have a chance to test more than once.” The great ivy tower is finally toppling, with Yale, Brown, Penn, Dartmouth, and Columbia joining Cornell as test optional schools for this fall. Harvard, Princeton, and other highly selective schools like Stanford, Northwestern, Vanderbilt, Duke, and Michigan have still not made a decision on this issue.
So what is our current advice for standardized testing? As Maya Angelou said, “Hoping for the best, prepared for the worst, and unsurprised by anything in between.” Meaning, keep studying assuming you can take the test in the fall, but do not worry if the tests do not take place or you only have one chance to take it. Below is a list of the schools that have recently become test optional in light of COVID, plus schools that fall into the category of “highly competitive” that have been test optional for some time. For a complete list of ALL test optional schools check out Fair Test.
Latest Test Optional Schools as of June 12, 2020
Amherst College (for high school class of 2021)
Babson University (for high school class of 20/21, then will review)
Barnard College (for high school class of 2021)
Bates College
Baylor University (for high school class of 2021, then will review)
Bentley University (for high school class of 2021)
Bowdoin*
Boston University (for high school class of 2021, then will review)
Bryn Mawr College*
Brown
Butler University
California Institute of Technology (2-year Test Blind pilot)
California Lutheran University
Cal State System
Carleton College (for high school class of 2021)
Carnegie Mellon University (for high school class of 2021, then will review)
Claremont McKenna College (for high school class of 2021)
Colby College
Colorado College*
Colgate University (for high school class of 2021)
College of Charleston (for high school class of 2021, then will review)
College of William & Mary (3-year pilot)
Columbia University (for high school class of 2021)
Connecticut College*
The Cooper Union (2-year pilot)
Cornell University (for high school class of 2021)
Dartmouth College (for high school class of 2021)
Davidson College (3-year pilot)
Denison College*
Elon University (3-year pilot)
Fordham University (2-year pilot)
George Washington University*
Grinnell College (for high school class of 2021)
Hamilton College (shift from test-flexible to ACT/SAT optional for class of 2021)
Haverford College (3-year pilot)
Johns Hopkins University (for high school class of 2021)
Kenyon College (for high school class of 2021)
Lafayette College (for high school class of 2021)
Loyola Marymount University (for high school class of 2021)
Macalester College
Michigan State University (for high school class of 2021)
Middlebury College (3-year pilot, previously test-flexible)
Minnesota State University Moorhead (3.25 GPA)
Mount Holyoke College*
Northeastern University (for high school class of 2021)
Occidental College (for high school class of 2021)
Oberlin College (3-year pilot)
Olin College of Engineering (for high school class of 2021)
Pennsylvania State University (for high school class of 2021)
Pomona College (for high school class of 2021)
Pitzer College*
Purdue University Northwest (for high school class of 2021)
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (for high school class of 2021, then will review)
Rochester Institute of Technology
Rhodes College (3-year pilot)
Skidmore College*
Smith*
Southern Methodist University (for high school class of 2021)
St. Louis University (3-year pilot)
Trinity College*
Tufts University (3-year pilot)
Tulane University (for high school class of 2021)
University of California Berkeley (for high school class of 2021 and 2022, then test blind)
University of California Davis (for high school class of 2021 and 2022, then test blind)
University of California Irvine (for high school class of 2021 and 2022, then test blind)
University of California Los Angeles (for high school class of 2021 and 2022, then test blind)
University of California Merced (for high school class of 2021 and 2022, then test blind)
University of California Riverside (for high school class of 2021 and 2022, then test blind)
University of California San Diego (for high school class of 2021 and 2022, then test blind)
University of California Santa Barbara (for high school class of 2021 and 2022, then test blind)
University of California Santa Cruz (for high school class of 2021 and 2022, then test blind)
University of Connecticut (3-year pilot)
University of Chicago
University of Delaware (for all applicants in high school class of 2021, previously in-state only)
University of Hawaii (for high school class of 2021)
University of Louisville (for high school class of 2021, then will review)
University of Miami (for high school class of 2021, then will review)
University of Oregon
University of Pennsylvania (for high school class of 2021)
University of Richmond (for high school class of 2021)
University of Rochester
University of San Diego
University of Southern California (for high school class of 2021)
University of Washington Seattle
University of Virginia (for high school class of 2021, then will review)
Union College*
University of Wisconsin System (except for Madison campus for high school class of 2021)
Vassar College (for high school class of 2021, then will review)
Villanova University (for high school class of 2021)
Virginia Tech (for high school class of 2021)
Wake Forest University
Washington and Lee University (for high school class of 2021)
Washington University in St. Louis
Wellesley College (for high school class of 2021)
Wesleyan*
Williams College (for high school class of 2021, then will review)
Yale
*Test Optional prior to 2020
