Some universities within the University of California system seem to be willing to reconsider the use of SAT/ACT in admissions. A legal settlement back in 2020 mandated that the UC system not consider standardized test scores from applicants through the spring of 2025. That time has now come, and some UC educators are suggesting that a return to testing requirements be considered.

From the BOARS (UC's Board of Admissions and Relations with Schools) meeting at the end of 2024:

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Chair Swenson asked members about their views of restoring standardized tests for UC admissions as has been done by many universities. While it would likely still be a challenge to require the SAT/ACT again, faculty have concerns about student preparation and think these tests offer a better understanding of who is being admitted and their preparation, especially in light of grade inflation.

Members should weigh in on the value of discussing this matter.

Discussion: UCB [Berkeley] has a task force that will look at the standardized test issue. There are institutions that receive more detailed information about applicants than UC and faculty at those schools still want standardized test scores. BOARS should keep in mind that the Standardized Testing Task Force conducted a thorough analysis and offered clear recommendations. Director Chang will have a new analysis on admissions in the absence of SAT/ACT scores to present to BOARS on January 3rd. Some argued that these tests might not fix the grade inflation issue and that students might decide against applying to UC if they were asked to take the SAT/ACT. It might be useful to look at results of math and English placement tests to see if they are predictive, but there are concerns about problems with these exams. Even though this is not a perfect indicator, performance in upper division courses might be a better way than SAT scores to assess preparedness.

 
From the UC BOARS meeting in January 2025:

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Discussion: There is some frustration that the COVID-19 pandemic will be used as an excuse for not determining the true impact of eliminating standardized tests. The stated goal for eliminating standardized tests was the desire to increase diversity but the analysis suggests this has not been achieved. Elimination of the standardized tests may have given privileged students another advantage. It would be helpful to look at admission rates of students from lower income households.

 
As expected, the abandonment of test optional policies at elite universities has resulted in a drop in the number of applications received by these institutions, and a slight uptick in their acceptance rates:

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At many of these schools, application volume fell. Dartmouth experienced an 11% decline from the previous year’s total, while Yale, which also returned to testing last fall, saw a decrease of more than 7,000 applications — 12.5% lower than fall 2023’s total.

Brown University had its smallest applicant pool since 2019, losing roughly 8,000 applicants compared to averages over the past five years.

In turn, Brown’s acceptance rate rose slightly, from 5.15% to 5.65%. Dartmouth’s increased from 5.3% to 6%, and Yale’s went up from 3.73% to 4.59%.

(Harvard remains circumspect in its official announcements regarding admissions, offering scant information, though statistics will eventually become public via the Common Data Set.)

Did the return to test requirements cause this reduction in applications? Absolutely, says John Birney, associate director of college counseling at Solomon Admissions Consulting and a former admissions officer at Johns Hopkins University.

“It’s not a surprise to see that applications at test-required schools are going down,” Birney told BestColleges.

Matthew Riley, director and senior admissions consultant with Ivy Academic Prep, believes that, despite the increased acceptance rates, the return to testing is a godsend for overtaxed admissions offices.

“I think [universities] got this huge influx of underqualified students, and I think it overwhelmed and overburdened the admissions offices,” Riley told BestColleges. “Maybe bringing back testing was a way for them to cut back on all those superfluous applications.”

 
Author and journalist Jeffrey Selingo has written an article for New York Magazine that examines the upward trend in significant financial aid packages being offered by US colleges and universities after May 1 (which was formerly the traditional cut-off day for student enrollment decisions and financial aid offers). Aside from an ability to pay a majority of college costs (which is determined with increasing accuracy by enrollment management calculations), such late-stage admissions offers are still often based partly on SAT/ACT scores (which many colleges still use to determine merit scholarships).

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The first day of May has long been one of the most important dates on the college-admissions calendar: the official deadline for high-school seniors to make the big choice of where to enroll the following fall. For both teenagers and colleges, the tradition and expectations were fixed. Schools had already provided all the relevant information for making the decision, and prospective students had a deadline for paying a deposit or surrendering their spot.

That rhythm began to fray in 2020, during the pandemic, when uncertainty pushed decision timelines later. It continued last year with the delayed rollout of a new federal financial-aid form. Many expected 2025 to mark a return to normal. Instead, for reasons ranging from Trump-administration policies to demographics to challenging industry economics, the reality of enrollment day continues to shift. In 2025, a round of last-minute deal-making by some colleges to attract students emerged as a new feature of the admissions landscape.

Zoe, a 17-year-old high-school senior who lives on the East Coast, made her decision this spring thinking that this would be a normal year. On April 29, after weighing admission offers from a dozen colleges, she posted her decision on Instagram for her friends to see: She was headed to the University of Southern California. Although several other colleges had offered her substantial discounts in the form of merit scholarships, the “sizzle and prestige” of USC was too good to pass up, her father, Mark, told me — even if that acceptance came with nothing in financial aid to cover the university’s $96,000 annual price tag with room and board.

But a few days later, before Zoe had declined her acceptances to the other schools that admitted her, an unexpected letter arrived from one of them. Syracuse University offered her a “Personal Distinction Award, in the amount of $80,000, disbursed in increments of $20,000 per year.” Not only did the award surprise Mark and his wife, Claire, for its timing — coming after the May 1 commitment date — but also for its size. Until then, Syracuse hadn’t offered any aid at all toward its $85,000 sticker price, which includes housing and food. “They wouldn’t play ball with us for months but then they dropped a sack of 80 grand on us,” said Mark, whose name, like others in this story, has been changed. “It was like, holy cow, why didn’t this come in 48, 72, or whatever number of hours before?”

The reasons behind Syracuse’s late-breaking offer, and similar actions from other schools, are complicated. The roots go back to 2019, when the National Association for College Admission Counseling, which represents admissions officers and high-school counselors, voted to scrap parts of its ethics code under threat from the Justice Department, which said it stifled competition. A section that discouraged colleges from recruiting students after May 1 was eliminated. (After the vote, one admissions dean posted on the site then known as Twitter: “Welcome to the Wild West.”)

In the ensuing five years, amid the upheavals of COVID and its aftermath, this change wasn’t particularly obvious to prospective students or their families.

Top-ranked schools dominate the headlines with their ever-decreasing acceptance rates, but the vast majority of colleges fight for every student they enroll. Undergraduate enrollment in the U.S. reached its peak in 2011 and has steadily declined since then. The percentage of high-school graduates going straight to college hit a high of 70 percent in 2016; by 2022, the last year available, it had dropped to 62 percent.

Basically, colleges across the country are competing for a shrinking pool of students.

 
Forbes weighs in on the increasing use of admissions consultants with a piece titled, "How the Explosion of Private Consultants Has Changed the College Admissions Landscape":

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It used to be so simple, many parents think. Students earned top grades, aced their standardized tests, participated in extracurricular activities, took on leadership roles, ran for student body president or spearheaded a campus club, and earned admission to their dream school.

Not anymore.

The admissions landscape has changed dramatically since parents applied to college years ago. Amidst declining admissions rates, swelling applicant pools, and an ever-changing target of what admissions officers are looking for, many families are discovering that the process is nearly impossible to navigate alone—and they are turning to private college consultants in record numbers in the hopes of gaining a competitive edge. Thirty-three percent of upper division students at Horace Mann, a top private school in New York City, self-reported using a private consultant in a recent survey conducted by the school newspaper (a number that is likely higher than reported due to the stigma surrounding college consultants). Additionally, one in five surveyed incoming freshmen in Harvard’s Class of 2026 reported working with a private admissions consultant.

About a decade ago, private college consulting was a cottage industry with only a handful of major players. Now, it is an approximately $3 billion industry, and families shell out tens of thousands of dollars annually to receive support through the admissions process. While the dramatic growth of the college consulting industry offers a range of options for families seeking support, it can also pose fresh challenges—not every college admissions consultant is created equal, and weeding through hundreds of firms to find the right one can be a daunting prospect.

But beyond changing families’ college application prep, the explosion of private college admissions consulting firms has fundamentally transformed the college admissions landscape itself—and families should adjust their admissions strategy accordingly.

But the boom in consulting firms and widely publicized information about the admissions process that surfaced following the Supreme Court’s case on affirmative action resulted in a much savvier population of parents and applicants. Everyone now knows that Harvard ranks applicants on a scale of 1–6, that standardized test scores almost always boost your chances of admission (even at test-optional schools), and what kind of essays appeal to admissions officers.

Simply working with a consultant will not negatively impact a student’s application—in fact, the right consultancy can significantly improve their application profile and admission odds. The key is in the approach. A great consultant should help a student discover their authentic voice, not manufacture it.

 
Akil Bello offers a detailed look at the question of whether students should submit SAT/ACT scores, and also offers perspective on recent test requirement announcements:

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Should You Take the SAT/ACT in 2025?

Four years ago, I first answered this question, but since 2021 might as well be the Age of the Pharaohs an update is due. This question still looms large and seems particularly confusing given that more than 85% of colleges remain test optional but news outlets obsessed with certain highly rejective colleges, test prep companies with revenue goals, economists at Dartmouth trying to justify their president’s wishes, and far too many educational consultants keep screaming that “testing is coming back.” So let me step once more into the void and venture to give some guidance on whether (and when) to prepare for and take the SAT or ACT.

Almost 90% of colleges are test optional, and even most selective colleges are optional. This means testing isn’t a requirement, it’s a personal strategic decision like taking AP classes. Do it if it will help you. Do it if the college requires it. Do it if you really love doing it. But it’s not required or necessary (at most colleges).

The notion that “testing is coming back” is equal parts hope (by people who love and/or benefit from people taking tests) and hyperfocus on a few colleges. The NYT wrote 9 billion stories on Dartmouth ending their test optional policy but none on Villanova, Emory, Northwestern, and Duke extending and Carleton making theirs permanent.

Send a score if, and only if, it makes you look good. It’s like sending your resume, cello recital, or pastel drawing to colleges. The more positive info you give a college the more likely you are to get admitted...

 
Another Forbes piece (also attached as a WORD doc) examines "How AI Is Reshaping The Elite College Admissions Landscape". The explosion of AI use by students (including in college essays, personal statements and writing samples) may incentivize colleges to rely more on standardized test scores.

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The college admissions landscape has changed dramatically over the last five years, due in large part to significant political, economic, and legislative shifts. But technological advances have also had a dynamic impact on the college admissions process, and the explosion of artificial intelligence promises to have far-reaching implications for admissions officers’ evaluations of application materials. While many students and parents have embraced these tools to assist with everything from building a college list to writing essays, it is critical for families to consider the potential impact of AI on their college applications—and the application process as a whole.

What AI Could Mean For Admissions Decisions

AI writing is everywhere—from the blogs and social media content we consume to the search results that appear on Google. Further, AI writing—from its overall paragraph structure to its syntax and sentence structure—is highly formulaic. Admissions officers who read hundreds of essays a day can easily differentiate between writing produced by AI and a student’s own voice; this means that they are well aware that a significant portion of students are using AI in some capacity in their applications.

The ubiquity of AI will likely lead admissions officers to lean even further into an already holistic admissions process. The overwhelming reliance on AI tools may lead admissions committees to deprioritize the personal statement and supplemental essays as true representations of a student’s authentic voice. Like with other elements of the application—such as standardized test scores and extracurriculars—whose importance has fluctuated amidst debates about their ability to equitably demonstrate a student’s college preparedness, written materials may carry less weight moving forward. This doesn’t mean that admissions officers will be permissive of AI use in any formal or explicit way, but that they will recognize its widespread implementation and examine the whole of a student’s application rather than any single element of it.

...a 2023 survey cited by Inside Higher Ed found that 50% of colleges surveyed were using AI in their review process, a number which has likely increased in the intervening years. While colleges have been notoriously vague about the particular ways in which these tools are trained to evaluate student writing, it is important for students to be aware of their use and devote significant time and effort to editing and polishing their materials before submission.

 
The decade-plus of changes to standardized tests continues to force colleges to decide how they will use the exams. In this example, Boston College is requiring all students submitting ACT scores to include the optional science section, while the University of Pennsylvania will not require science section scores.

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Ever since ACT announced the 2025 changes to its test, especially the decision to make the Science section of the exam optional, we’ve been wondering how colleges and universities will respond. Will they accept the new ACT composite score as is (composed solely of English, Mathematics, and Reading) or will they require students to also submit Science section scores? Additionally, will these decisions vary across a university’s different schools and departments? For instance, will pre-med or engineering applicants be required to submit ACT Science scores while the rest of their peers applying to the same university do not?

Two schools, Boston University and University of Pennsylvania, have arrived at different decisions on if students need to submit ACT Science scores. While Boston University is requiring all students to submit ACT Science section scores, the University of Pennsylvania is not. Boston University clarifies that while they are requiring applicants to take the optional ACT Science section, applicants are not required to take the optional Writing section. Both schools will also continue to accept the SAT.

 
The College Board will now offer an SAT test date in September. The additional test date should aid students on the West coast (in particular) who are currently facing severe difficulties in registering for an SAT test within convenient travel distance of their homes.