Standardized Test Policies

Test policy status & details for VetLink institutions

Standardized tests are a common component of many college admissions packages. Each school has different requirements and considerations for standardized tests. Below you can find each VetLink partner institution's admissions testing policy, policy statement, latest fall entry year that the policy is valid for, and link to the school's test policy.

Updated effective March 7, 2024

American University

Admissions Testing Policy: Test Optional

Policy Details: Prospective students may apply to American University through our Early or Regular Decision Plan without submitting standardized test scores.

Latest fall entry year: Indefinite

Link to Policy

Amherst College

Admissions Testing Policy: Test Optional

Policy Details: Standardized testing (either SAT or ACT) is an optional part of our admission application for both first-year applicants and transfer applicants and constitutes only one element of our comprehensive and holistic application review process.

Latest fall entry year: Indefinite

Link to policy

Bates College

Admissions Testing Policy: Test Optional

Policy Details: Standardized testing, such as the SAT and the ACT, is optional for all students applying to Bates.

Latest fall entry year: Permanent

Link to policy

Boston College

Admissions Testing Policy: Test Optional

Policy Details: Boston College will continue its test-optional admission policy for the 2024-25 application cycle.

Latest fall entry year: 2024-25

Link to policy

Bowdoin College

Admissions Testing Policy: Test Optional

Policy Details: Bowdoin College is test-optional for all applicants.

Latest fall entry year: Permanent

Link to policy

Brown University

Admissions Testing Policy: Test Optional

Policy Details: Brown will reinstate the standardized testing requirement beginning with the next admission cycle for the Class of 2029, whose students will enroll at Brown in the 2025-26 academic year.

Latest fall entry year: 2024

Link to policy

Colgate University

Admissions Testing Policy: Test Optional

Policy Details: Colgate will remain test optional thorough the 2026-2027 application cycle. We will evaluate the data during the course of the 2026-27 academic year and then make a more permanent decision.

Latest fall entry year: 2026-27

Link to policy

Cornell University

Admissions Testing Policy: Test Optional

Policy Details: Cornell will remain test optional for first-year candidates through at least fall 2025. We’ve never required standardized tests from transfer students.

Latest fall entry year: 2025

Link to policy

Dartmouth College

Admissions Testing Policy: Test Optional (through 2024 entry) // Test Required (starting fall 2025 entry)

Policy Details: Dartmouth will reactivate the standardized testing requirement for undergraduate admission beginning with applicants to the Class of 2029

Latest fall entry year:

Link to policy

Emory University

Admissions Testing Policy: Test Optional

Policy Details: Emory University has extended its test-optional policy for prospective first year & transfer students applying through the 2024-25 admission cycle

Latest fall entry year: 2025

Link to policy

Harvard University

Admissions Testing Policy: Test Required

Policy Details: Harvard College will require the submission of standardized test scores from applicants for admission as part of the comprehensive application process that takes a whole-student approach.

Latest fall entry year: 2024

Link to policy

Johns Hopkins University

Admissions Testing Policy: Test Optional

Policy Details: Johns Hopkins University will be test-optional through the 2025-2026 application year.

Latest fall entry year: 2026

Link to policy

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Admissions Testing Policy: Test Required

Policy Details: SAT or the ACT for both prospective first year and transfer students. Eli Whitney Students Program: SAT and ACT scores are optional. Standardized test results shared with the admissions office will be taken into consideration in the application review process, but these test results are not required.

Latest fall entry year: Permanent

Link to policy

Occidental College

Admissions Testing Policy: Test Optional

Policy Details: Occidental does not require standardized testing for first-year or transfer applicants. This policy is permanent; there is no plan to return to standardized testing requirements for any future entry term.

Latest fall entry year: Permanent

Link to policy

Pomona College

Admissions Testing Policy: Test Optional

Policy Details: Students applying to Pomona College will no longer be required to provide standardized testing scores for admission. Pomona faculty voted to make this policy permanent.

Latest fall entry year: Permanent

Link to policy

Princeton University

Admissions Testing Policy: Test Optional

Policy Details: Princeton is extending the test optional policy for first-year and transfer applicants for the next three admission cycles (that is, for applications due in the falls of 2023, 2024, and 2025).

Latest fall entry year: 2025

Link to policy

Smith College

Admissions Testing Policy: Test Optional

Policy Details: Smith College has been test-optional since 2009 and remains test-optional today.

Latest fall entry year: Permanent

Link to policy

Stanford University

Admissions Testing Policy: Test Optional

Policy Details: For the 2023–24 and 2024–25 admission cycles, Stanford will not require ACT or SAT scores for first-year or transfer applicants.

Latest fall entry year: 2025

Link to policy

Swarthmore College

Admissions Testing Policy: Test Optional

Policy Details: Swarthmore is extending our test-optional policy for students applying for fall 2023, fall 2024 and fall 2025 entry

Latest fall entry year: 2025

Link to policy

The Catholic University of America

Admissions Testing Policy: Test Free

Policy Details: Five years after making standardized test scores optional for admission to Catholic University, the Office of Undergraduate Admission announces that it will no longer consider test scores; it will be “test-blind.”

Latest fall entry year: Permanent

Link to policy

University of Chicago

Admissions Testing Policy: Test Optional

Policy Details: UChicago is test-optional, which means that we do not require students to share results of the SAT or ACT if you have been unable to test or prefer not to share your scores.

Latest fall entry year: Indefinite

Link to policy

University of Michigan

Admissions Testing Policy: Test Optional

Policy Details: Students applying for admission for the winter 2025 academic term and beyond continue to have the choice of whether to submit standardized test scores as part of their application.

Latest fall entry year: Indefinite

Link to policy

University of Notre Dame

Admissions Testing Policy: Test Optional

Policy Details: The University of Notre Dame’s Enrollment Division has announced that the University will remain test-optional for undergraduate applicants through the 2025 application year.

Latest fall entry year: 2025

Link to policy

University of South Carolina

Admissions Testing Policy: Test Optional

Policy Details: Students applying for freshman admission to the University of South Carolina’s Columbia campus will not be required to submit standardized SAT or ACT scores through the spring, summer or fall 2024 terms.

Latest fall entry year: 2024

Link to policy

Vassar College

Admissions Testing Policy: Test Optional

Policy Details: Vassar College will no longer require applicants to submit SAT or ACT test scores when they apply for admission

Latest fall entry year: Permanent

Link to policy

Villanova University

Admissions Testing Policy: Test Optional

Policy Details: Villanova University remains test-optional for applicants through the 2025-26 admission campaign.

Latest fall entry year: 2026

Link to policy

Wesleyan University

Admissions Testing Policy: Test Optional

Policy Details: Wesleyan does not require most students to submit SAT or ACT scores as part of the application for admission, a permanent policy waiving the test score requirement that has been in effect since the 2020–2021 application cycle

Latest fall entry year: Permanent

Link to policy

William & Mary

Admissions Testing Policy: Test Optional

Policy Details: Our admission review process is based on a comprehensive, holistic approach that considers multiple factors in making decisions. A test-optional policy provides students with additional ownership in the process by allowing them to decide whether or not they wish for SAT/ACT scores to be included as part of their application review.

Latest fall entry year: Permanent

Link to policy

Williams College

Admissions Testing Policy: Test Optional

Policy Details: All students applying for entry through the fall of 2025 may choose whether to submit SAT/ACT exam results

Latest fall entry year: 2026

Link to policy

Xavier University

Admissions Testing Policy: Test Optional

Policy Details: Xavier University offers test-optional admission. It is your choice to include ACT or SAT scores as part of your application

Latest fall entry year: Permanent

Link to policy

Yale University

Admissions Testing Policy: Test Flexible (1st Yr) // Test Optional (EWSP)

Policy Details: First Year Applicants: Standardized tests are required of all first-year applicants for fall 2025 admission and later. Applicants will choose which scores to include from four options: ACT, Advanced Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate (IB), SA

Latest fall entry year: 2024

Link to policy