Short answer: yes, more than most students assume. Test-optional means you do not have to submit a score. It does not mean scores get ignored, and the decision to leave them off is not without consequence. The research from the schools that have studied this question most carefully tells a more interesting story than the phrase suggests.
What “Test-Optional” Actually Means
A test-optional policy gives you a choice. Submit your SAT or ACT scores and they are read as part of your application. Do not submit, and the school evaluates you without them.
Do not confuse test-optional with test-blind. The University of California system is test-blind: scores are ignored even if you send them. Test-optional schools still read whatever scores you submit, and that cuts both ways. A strong score helps your application, while one well below the school’s typical range can hurt it.
The Landscape Has Shifted: Many Selective Schools Require Scores Again
It is tempting to read “test-optional” as “colleges do not care about scores anymore.” That is no longer true at most selective schools.
After running their own internal data analysis, a growing number of selective universities have brought testing requirements back. MIT was first, in 2022. Dartmouth, Harvard, and Brown reinstated requirements for the 2024–25 cycle. Yale followed for 2025–26. In October 2025, Princeton announced it would require scores starting with applicants to the Class of 2032, the 2027–28 cycle. Columbia is currently the only Ivy League school with a permanent test-optional policy.
Currently test-required at the well-known end: Harvard, Yale, MIT, Dartmouth, Brown, and Georgetown. Stanford and Cornell have school-specific or more complicated policies; they are not fully test-required, but they are not fully test-optional either. Verify the current policy at every school on your list before you apply. Things have shifted multiple times in the last few years.
Currently test-optional: Columbia, University of Chicago, Vanderbilt, Northwestern, Duke, Emory, Wake Forest, and over 2,000 colleges and universities nationwide, per FairTest’s running count.
Why Did Schools Reinstate Testing? The Research
The schools that brought testing back did not do it on a hunch. Each one ran years of internal data analysis on its own admitted students, and the findings lined up consistently.
Dartmouth commissioned its own faculty to study the data: four of them, economists and a sociologist, working with applicant records from both test-required and test-optional years. Their report to the university president, published in January 2024, did not soften the conclusion. Test scores are among the most reliable predictors of academic success at Dartmouth, and that holds across income levels and demographic backgrounds. They also found something more uncomfortable. Under the test-optional policy, high-achieving students from lower-income backgrounds were the ones most likely to skip submitting scores, even when submitting would have helped their applications. Dartmouth was missing students who would have thrived there.
Yale’s research came to similar conclusions. Their dean of admissions, Jeremiah Quinlan, said the school’s internal data identified scores as one of the strongest predictors of academic performance at Yale, and that relationship held even after controlling for family income. Yale also noticed that without scores, admissions officers ended up leaning harder on extracurriculars and the polish of recommendation letters. Both of those tilt toward students from more affluent backgrounds.
Harvard’s April 2024 announcement made the same case. Test scores are predictive of college success, and when read alongside the context of a student’s high school, they can help spot promising students from disadvantaged backgrounds whose strengths might otherwise be invisible to admissions.
Princeton’s October 2025 announcement followed a five-year review of its own test-optional data. Students who submitted scores academically outperformed those who did not, though Princeton was careful to note that this likely reflects who chose to submit as much as anything causal about the score itself.
If a School Is Still Test-Optional, Should You Submit?
This depends almost entirely on where your score lands compared to the school’s middle 50% range, which is the band between the 25th and 75th percentile of admitted students. That data is in the Common Data Set every school files, usually a quick search away from the admissions page.
The rough rule:
- Submit if your score is at or above the school’s 25th percentile, and definitely if it is near or above the median. A score in that range is an asset to your application.
- Consider submitting if you are just below the 25th percentile but your high school context matters. For example, if you attended an under-resourced school and your score still represents genuine achievement relative to your peers there.
- Do not submit if your score is well below the 25th percentile. At that point, it is more likely to raise questions than to help.
Research cited by the College Board suggests that applicants whose scores fall at or above a school’s typical range have meaningfully higher admission rates when they submit. Withholding a weak score is still a reasonable call. A strong score is genuinely valuable, even at a school that does not require one.
One more thing to flag: at test-optional schools, scores can still matter past the admissions decision. Plenty of colleges use SAT and ACT scores for merit scholarships, honors college eligibility, and course placement. Check the policies carefully, since the admissions office and the scholarship office often play by different rules at the same school.
A Note on Low-Income and First-Generation Applicants
One of the more counterintuitive findings in this research: test-optional policies may not actually serve lower-income students as well as the policies were designed to. At highly selective schools, when scores are not on the table, admissions officers end up leaning more heavily on advanced coursework, enrichment activities, and polished essays. All three correlate with family income and school resources. A student at a well-resourced high school has more to show in those categories than a student at a school with a thin course catalog and few extracurricular options.
For students from under-resourced schools, a solid score (even one below a school’s median) can actually work in your favor when it is read in context. Many selective schools evaluate scores against what students at your high school typically achieve, not against a national average. A 1350 from a school where the average is 980 tells admissions something different than a 1350 from a school where the average is 1200. If your score reflects real effort and ability relative to your peers, it is often worth submitting, especially at schools that explicitly say they evaluate scores in context.
The Practical Decision Framework
A simple way to decide whether to submit:
- Look up the school’s middle 50% SAT range. It is in Section C9 of the Common Data Set, usually one search away from the admissions page.
- Compare your score. At or above the 25th percentile, submit. Well below it, go test-optional for that school.
- Look at the rest of your application. With a strong GPA, hard coursework, and real extracurriculars, a below-average score does not do much damage but does not help either. If the rest of your application is weaker, a strong score can do real work.
- Check scholarship and honors-program requirements separately. Test-optional admission does not mean test-optional scholarships. Do not assume the admissions policy covers the whole school.
What to Actually Do
Test-optional is not the same as test-irrelevant. At nearly every selective college that is still test-optional, a strong SAT or ACT score is still an asset, and the research from the schools that have studied the question most carefully says scores remain among the more useful pieces of evidence in an admissions file. The trend at the most selective schools has been moving back toward requiring scores. Policies are still shifting around, so check each school on your list before deciding.
For almost every student, the right move is the same: take the SAT or ACT, prep seriously for it, and let your score determine your strategy from there. A strong score helps your application and never hurts it.
If you are still working on your score, FreeTestPrep.com has free drills organized by question type for both tests: