Yes, there are highly selective universities that now require test scores as well as some public flagship schools. However, the vast majority of colleges remain test optional in 2025-2026. So, does that mean your child should not take a standardized test if they don’t plan on applying to the Ivy Leagues? Of course not – many universities are ‘test-optional’ in name only and submitting an above average test score will increase your admission odds. So, what does test optional mean? It means take the tests.
Test blind vs. Test Optional
Test blind
The University of California System is an example of schools that will not even look at test scores even if they are submitted. A test blind school will look at all applications without any reference to scores whatsoever. The admissions office won’t even see SAT or ACT scores. Thus all students are immediately put on an even (scoreless) playing field—or so it seems (more on that in a minute).
Test optional
This is the middle ground: students may choose to send scores if they have them. The vast majority of schools have this testing policy in place. And this is where things get very sticky. So, should a student submit or not? Every year in their Common Data Set, colleges and universities report the 25th to 75th percentile of SAT and ACT scores as well as the % of incoming students that reported test scores. The general rule of thumb, that we tend to agree with, is that if you student is above the 50th percentile of the range then they should submit their score to that school.
And how, exactly, will a student with scores be compared to a student without them? Unlike the “test blind” policy in which scores will not be considered for any applicant, the playing field under the “test optional” policy is unclear at best and completely uneven at worst. On our College Admissions Experts Facebook Group of almost 100,000 members, parents are continually asking whether their student should submit scores to College X and, if they don’t submit, will it hurt their chances of being admitted?
Holistic Review vs. Clear Standards
College and universities, both private and public, emphasize (even before the pandemic) that they perform a “holistic review” of students for admission. Supposedly, no one criterion is determinant. The admissions officers look at everything before rendering your decision. These factors include both objective and subjective indicators. But the only objective ones are test scores, class rank, and level of awards earned from international down to local.
Moreover, in poring over the many messages on other professional information exchanges, it becomes apparent that some schools will still see scores even if the student elects on the application to go test optional. This is because the colleges control what they download from the Common App. If the student enters the scores into the application, then an admissions officer at a test optional school may still be able to see those scores.
Even if the student has asked that the scores NOT be considered, the reader of the application cannot really “unsee” the scores.
While I’d like to believe that an admissions officer will duly take the student’s wishes into account, if the score is on the application I am still going to assume that the admissions officer will somehow, someway take these scores into account in the “holistic” review—even if they promise not to. If it’s on the application, it will be taken into account—even informally or subliminally. You can’t unsee a score that is staring at you on the page.
Whom Do You Trust?
When the process is so subjective and the process so opaque, whom can you trust to give a kid a fair shake? Can we really trust the people in an admissions office to make the best choices?
Now let me just say that I think that the vast majority of college admissions officers are honorable people. They believe in their mission to open up higher education to a wide variety of young people. The believe that universities are engines of social mobility, and they may believe (against the evidence) that the holistic process of admissions is as fair and transparent as possible. They try hard to balance the needs of the institution they serve while offering opportunity for deserving young people.
And yet, given the extraordinarily subjective nature of this process how can we really trust that the application my son or daughter submits to a particular college will get a fair shake? Since the process is emphatically not transparent, and since the judgments being rendered seem—from the outside—completely random, why would I believe the calming rhetoric coming from admissions offices?
For many, college admissions is a very high stakes game. If the success or failure of my daughter’s application turns on the subjective judgment of a couple of anonymous people in the admission office and not on any objective indicators like test scores—how can I be confident that the process works?
A great number of families do not trust that the process works. So, they hire independent college consultants to help them navigate the mysterious world of college admission. These families understand the inherently subjective nature of the process and engage specialists to help give their kids an edge.
What Private College Counselors Tell Their Clients
Quite simple: take the tests.
“Test optional” means take the tests. And get a high score.
If you want to go to an elite college, and you have the opportunity (or can create the opportunity—even by driving across three states to an open testing site). You will have a better chance with a score than without.
At Great College Advice, we are telling our clients that it is beneficial to put together a standardized testing plan. In an admissions process with very, very few objective data points, the possession of a positive, very useful data point (your SAT and/or ACT score) can make the difference between acceptance and rejection.
Furthermore, private college counselors—and others who work with high-achieving, hard-driving students—know that colleges can pledge an oath not to judge an application negatively if it arrives on their desks without test scores. But these pledges are impossible to verify. And they are pretty empty, given the institutional incentives to bring in students with high scores if they have them.
Every college wants high SAT/ACT scores
Even colleges with “test optional” admissions policies have incentives to collect test scores that are at the upper ends of their ranges. They want the high scores, but don’t want the low ones. Colleges that have been test optional for decades, including Bates and Bowdoin, still report “average” test scores of incoming students to the ratings agencies and to the US government and in their Common Data Set. But these averages are skewed, because only students with high scores will “opt” to include them on their application.
Test optional colleges won’t say it out loud, but they really prefer that students with high test scores submit them. And those with lower test scores “opt” not to send them. This way, the average submitted test scores remain high and this is the number that the test optional college reports on.
The process of deciding whom to admit and whom to reject is secretive, opaque, and “holistic”—which means it is entirely subjective. The only way to convince me that test scores won’t be considered in any way in the admissions process is for the school to either implement an entirely test-blind policy and suppress the scores from even reaching the admissions office.
Need help with the college admissions process?
The expert admissions counselors at Great College Advice can not only assist with developing a standardized test plan but also help with high school course selection, extracurricular activities, researching colleges and overseeing the college application process.
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