Elite colleges are returning to the SAT and ACT. Will others follow?

精英大学正在回归SAT和ACT。其他人会效仿吗？

All eight Ivy League institutions have either moved away from COVID-era test-optional policies or plan to do so now that Columbia University has announced it will reinstate standardized testing requirements for undergraduate applicants in August 2027.

随着哥伦比亚大学宣布将于 2027 年 8 月恢复本科申请者的标准化考试要求，八所常春藤盟校均已退出新冠疫情时期的标化考试可选政策，或计划退出该政策。

Other top-ranked institutions, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Johns Hopkins University, already returned to requiring SAT or ACT scores following the pandemic.

疫情过后，麻省理工学院、约翰斯・霍普金斯大学等其他顶尖高校已恢复要求申请者提交 SAT 或 ACT 成绩。

The Trump administration, meanwhile, has taken a firm position in favor of standardized test requirements for college admissions.

与此同时，特朗普政府明确支持大学招生设置标准化考试要求。

In sweeping guidance released in February 2025 — which has since been struck down in court — the U.S. Department of Education’s then-Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor warned colleges against using proxies for race, writing that it would be unlawful, “for an educational institution to eliminate standardized testing to achieve a desired racial balance or to increase racial diversity.”

美国教育部时任代理民权事务助理部长克雷格・特雷纳在 2025 年 2 月发布的一份全面指导文件（该文件其后被法院裁定无效）中警示高校，不得采用种族替代考量指标。他在文件中写道，教育机构若为实现预期种族平衡或提升种族多元性而取消标准化考试，该行为属于违法。

The Trump administration later proposed a compact to give institutions preferential treatment in funding if they adopted the federal government’s policy priorities, including requiring all undergraduate applicants to take a standardized test such as the SAT or ACT. None of the nine institutions initially offered the compact accepted.

特朗普政府随后提出一项协议：高校若采纳联邦政府的优先政策，包括要求所有本科申请者参加 SAT 或 ACT 等标准化考试，便可获得资金方面的优待。最初收到该协议邀约的九所院校无一接受。

For now, it has been mostly top-ranked universities — including some major public institutions — that are returning to SAT and ACT requirements. But it remains to be seen whether the Trump administration’s position will spur more colleges to follow the Ivy League’s lead.

现阶段恢复 SAT 和 ACT 成绩要求的大多是顶尖高校，其中包含部分知名公立院校。但特朗普政府的立场能否促使更多高校效仿常春藤盟校的做法，仍有待观察。

“A lot of higher ed institutions tend to take their lead from the more selective institutions,” said Pamela Burdman, founder and executive director of the California-based Just Equations, a nonprofit focused on equity in mathematics education. “So the question is: Will the practices of the Ivy League seep down into the rest of higher ed?”

“许多高等教育机构往往会参照选拔性更强的名校的做法，” 总部位于加州、专注于数学教育公平的非营利机构 Just Equations 创始人兼执行董事帕梅拉・伯德曼表示，“那么问题在于：常春藤盟校的这一举措是否会逐步渗透到其他高等院校？”

So far, however, the Trump administration’s stance and the move of the Ivy League institutions are hardly the death knell for test-optional policies nationwide.

然而，到目前为止，特朗普政府的立场和常春藤盟校的举动还很难敲响全国范围内可选检测政策的丧钟。

While there is no question the coronavirus pandemic drove the rapid growth of the test-optional movement nixing SAT or ACT requirements, the impact of those changes remains strong. According to FairTest, an organization that advocates for limiting standardized testing in college admissions, more than 2,000 bachelor’s-degree granting institutions are test optional or test free.

虽然毫无疑问，疫情冠状病毒推动了取消SAT或ACT要求的可选考试运动的快速增长，但这些变化的影响仍然很大。据倡导限制大学招生标准化考试的组织 FairTest 称，有 2000 多个学士学位授予机构可以选择考试或免费考试。

“The truth is over 90% of schools are still test optional. A variety of schools have just double downed again,” said Harry Feder, executive director of FairTest.

“事实上，超过 90% 的学校仍然是可选的。FairTest 执行董事哈里-费德（Harry Feder）说：”许多学校的费用又翻了一番。

What does the data say?

数据说明了什么？

Feder said high school grades are far more indicative of how students will perform in college than the SAT or ACT.

费德说，高中成绩比SAT或ACT更能反映学生在大学的表现。

A 2014 study of colleges that don’t require standardized testing scores found almost no difference between the graduation rates of applicants who submitted scores and those who didn’t. Meanwhile, it found strong GPAs in high school were linked to high GPAs in college.

2014 年对不要求标准化考试成绩的大学进行的一项研究发现，提交成绩的申请者和不提交成绩的申请者的毕业率几乎没有区别。与此同时，它发现高中的高平均绩点与大学的高平均绩点有关。

Feder also contended that standardized tests have “all sorts of class and race discriminatory properties” that make them exclusionary.

费德还认为，标准化考试具有 “各种阶级和种族歧视特性”，使其具有排他性。

There have been persistent findings of racial disparities, for instance, in standardized testing performance, with a 2020 Brookings Institution report showing that Asian and White students consistently outperform their Black and Latino peers on the SAT's math section.

种族差异的发现一直存在，例如，在标准化考试成绩方面，布鲁金斯学会2020年的一份报告显示，亚裔和白人学生在SAT数学部分的表现一直优于黑人和拉丁裔同龄人。

But a January 2025 working paper studying Dartmouth College applicants, co-authored by Dartmouth economics professor Bruce Sacerdote, found that standardized test requirements often help high-achieving students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

但达特茅斯经济学教授布鲁斯·萨瑟多特 (Bruce Sacerdote) 于 2025 年 1 月合著的一篇研究达特茅斯学院申请人的工作文件发现，标准化考试要求通常有助于来自弱势背景的优秀学生。

“There’s not really an association between being test optional and having a more diverse pool, at least in a lot of places,” Sacerdote said. “It’s not like there’s some cutoff score that everybody’s got to hit and then you’re in or you’re out. It’s much more about: Are you succeeding in the context of your environment?”

“Sacerdote 说：”至少在很多地方，可选检测与拥有更多样化的人才库之间并没有真正的联系。“这并不是说每个人都必须达到某个分数线，然后你就进了，或者你就出局了。更重要的是：你在所处的环境中是否取得成功？”

Brown University economics professor John Friedman agrees.

布朗大学经济学教授约翰·弗里德曼对此表示同意。

Friedman helped lead a May 2025 study on standardized test scores and academic performance at “Ivy-Plus” colleges, which included the eight Ivy League institutions plus MIT, Stanford University, Duke University and the University of Chicago.

弗里德曼帮助领导了一项 2025 年 5 月关于 “常春藤+ ”学院标准化考试成绩和学习成绩的研究，其中包括八所常春藤联盟院校以及麻省理工学院、斯坦福大学、杜克大学和芝加哥大学。

“Test scores at Ivy-Plus institutions are way more predictive of academic preparation than high school grades. High school grades are, in fact, not that predictive at all of academic preparation,” he said, adding that too many students are getting 4.0 GPAs or close to that.

“与高中成绩相比，常春藤高中院校的考试成绩更能预测学业准备情况。事实上，高中成绩并不能预测所有的学业准备情况，”他说，并补充说，太多学生的平均绩点达到了 4.0 或接近 4.0。

He called the decision by Ivy League schools to revert to standardized test requirements a positive development.

他称常春藤盟校恢复标准化考试要求的决定是一个积极的发展。

“My sense is this is the right policy to go to, and it really comes out of the work I did as a researcher,” said Friedman.

“弗里德曼说：”我的感觉是，这是正确的政策，也是我作为研究人员所做工作的结果。

MIT Dean of Admissions and Student Financial Services Stuart Schmill referenced the university’s own internal research when it reinstated its standardized testing requirement in 2022.

麻省理工学院招生与学生金融服务系主任斯图尔特-施米尔（Stuart Schmill）在2022年恢复标准化考试要求时引用了该校自己的内部研究。

“Our research has shown that, in most cases, we cannot reliably predict students will do well at MIT unless we consider standardized test results alongside grades, coursework, and other factors,” he said at the time.

“他当时说：”我们的研究表明，在大多数情况下，除非我们将标准化考试成绩与成绩、课程和其他因素一起考虑，否则我们无法可靠地预测学生在麻省理工学院的表现。

Similarly, Friedman’s and Sacerdote’s research played a role in the decisions to reinstate the requirements at Brown and Dartmouth, respectively. But they also are quick to acknowledge that test scores are merely one factor in admissions.

同样，弗里德曼和萨瑟多特的研究也分别在布朗大学和达特茅斯大学恢复要求的决定中发挥了作用。但他们也很快承认，考试成绩只是录取的一个因素。

Meanwhile, Feder expressed concern that the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling striking down race-conscious admissions, coupled with a return to standardized test requirements, has harmed diversity.

与此同时，费德表示担忧，美国最高法院 2023 年做出的取消种族意识招生的裁决，加上恢复标准化考试要求，损害了多样性。

An analysis by Class Action, a nonprofit organization, showed that Black and Hispanic enrollment at Ivy-Plus institutions dropped in the aftermath of the court’s decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard.

非营利组织 Class Action 的一项分析显示，在法院对 Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard 一案作出裁决后，常春藤院校的黑人和西班牙裔入学率有所下降。

“It’s very clear that as a result of that decision, the percentage of Black and brown kids at the elite institutions being admitted has decreased. Going away from test optional contributes to that,” Feder said.

“很明显，由于这一决定，黑人和棕色人种儿童被精英院校录取的比例有所下降。取消选择性考试也是造成这种情况的原因之一，”费德说。

But Friedman and Sacerdote counter that part of the issue is that some students from disadvantaged backgrounds err by not submitting standardized test scores, failing to realize that the scores they attained may be more of an asset than they think.

但弗里德曼和萨瑟多特反驳说，部分问题在于，一些来自弱势背景的学生没有提交标准化考试成绩，没有意识到他们获得的分数可能比他们想象的更有价值。

Which colleges are staying test-optional?

哪些大学可以选择参加考试？

There is no universal answer to whether schools should use test scores or not, said Friedman. “The answer depends on what one finds when universities go do the work on their data,” he said.

弗里德曼说，学校是否应该使用考试成绩没有普遍的答案。“他说：”答案取决于大学对其数据进行研究时的发现。

It was data that took the University of Vermont in a different direction, according to its vice president for enrollment management, Jay Jacobs. UVM made its test-optional policy permanent for undergraduate admissions in 2025.

佛蒙特大学负责招生管理的副校长杰伊·雅各布斯表示，正是这些数据将佛蒙特大学引向了不同的方向。UVM 将 2025 年本科生招生免试政策永久化。

According to Jacobs, the university studied fall and first-year cumulative GPA for its students with standardized test scores on record versus those without. What the admissions team found, he said, was little difference between the groups.

根据雅各布斯的说法，该大学研究了有标准化考试成绩记录的学生和没有标准化考试成绩的学生的秋季和第一年的累积平均绩点。他说，招生小组发现，这两组之间几乎没有区别。

“The admissions team and the faculty student affairs committee started to ask questions,” said Jacobs. “Are these differences big enough to warrant the test requirement, given what we know about the tests and who performs well on them from a socioeconomic perspective, from a racial and ethnic diversity perspective, from a gender diversity perspective?”

“雅各布斯说：”招生团队和教师学生事务委员会开始提问。“鉴于我们对测试的了解，以及从社会经济角度、从种族和民族多样性角度、从性别多样性角度来看，谁在测试中表现良好，这些差异是否足以证明需要进行测试？”

Officials also decided it was important for UVM to be accessible, given its status as a public flagship and land-grant institution. “That drove us to think about whether this would work,” Jacobs said.

官员们还认为，鉴于UVM作为公共旗舰和土地授予机构的地位，无障碍对UVM来说非常重要。“雅各布斯说：”这促使我们思考这是否可行。

He added that during UVM’s test-optional admission pilot program, which started in the 2020-21 academic year, both retention and graduation rates increased. “In fact, we’re sitting this year on the second straight year of the highest one-year retention rate in university history and our highest graduation rates in university history.”

他补充说，在 2020-21 学年开始的 UVM 可选入学试点计划中，保留率和毕业率都有所提高。“事实上，今年我们连续第二年创下大学历史上最高的一年保留率和大学历史上最高的毕业率。”

Many other colleges from various parts of the country, including the University of Michigan, Syracuse University and Texas Tech University, have stood by their test-optional policies as well.

来自全国各地的许多其他大学，包括密歇根大学、雪城大学和德克萨斯理工大学，也坚持他们的可选考试政策。

Uproar in the Golden State

金州的骚动

The University of California system implemented a test-free admissions policy in 2020. But could that be changing?

加州大学系统在2020年实施了免试录取政策。但这种情况会改变吗？

More than 2,300 University of California faculty members have signed an open letter urging the system to reinstate the SAT/ACT mathematics requirement for STEM majors, starting with the 2027 admissions cycle. The letter alleged students are coming to college badly underprepared in math and that objective benchmarks are needed.

超过2300名加州大学教职员工签署了一封公开信，敦促该系统从2027年招生周期开始，恢复STEM专业的SAT/ACT数学要求。这封信声称，学生来到大学时数学准备严重不足，需要客观的基准。

In July, UC’s board chair said a standardized testing review would be a “major focus” of the board and that she expects the academic senate to make a recommendation on the system’s testing policy by the end of the academic year.

今年 7 月，加州大学董事会主席表示，标准化考试审查将是董事会的 “主要关注点”，她希望学术参议院能在本学年结束前就该系统的考试政策提出建议。

Burdman, the founder of Just Equations, said math underpreparedness is a national trend but questions the remedy some professors are proposing.

Just Equations 的创始人 Burdman 表示，数学准备不足是一种全国性趋势，但他质疑一些教授提出的补救措施。

“I’m skeptical that returning to standardized tests is going to be the solution to the problem they’ve identified, particularly for a public university that has an obligation to serve the broad diversity of the state’s population, whether it’s geography, income, ethnicity or race,” Burdman said.

“伯德曼说：”我怀疑恢复标准化考试能否解决他们所发现的问题，尤其是对于一所公立大学来说，它有义务为该州人口的广泛多样性服务，无论是地理、收入、民族还是种族。

The UC faculty letter stated, “The SAT/ACT mathematics requirement is not an obstacle to equity; rather, it is a prerequisite for it.”

加州大学教师的信中写道：“SAT/ACT 数学要求不是公平的障碍，而是公平的先决条件。”

But Burdman countered that multiple ways of addressing math readiness don’t involve using standardized tests.

但伯德曼反驳说，解决数学准备问题的多种方法并不涉及使用标准化测试。

Feder agreed and went a step further. “It’s a manufactured crisis,” Feder said. “You’re getting rid of a lot of potential doctors in a lot of communities if you start sifting them out by SAT scores. This isn’t MIT or Harvard.”

费德同意了，并更进一步。“费德说：”这是一场人为制造的危机。“如果你开始根据 SAT 分数来筛选很多社区的潜在医生，你就会淘汰他们。这里不是麻省理工学院或哈佛大学。”

But Sacerdote called periodic standardized test assessments “part of life” for potential doctors. He suggested that reinstating these requirements may provide applicants with a better understanding of how to study for the MCAT exam and other tests down the road.

但 Sacerdote 称定期标准化测试评估是潜在医生 “生活的一部分”。他建议，恢复这些要求可能会让申请人更好地了解如何学习MCAT考试和其他考试。

No one-size-fits-all solution

没有放之四海而皆准的解决方案

Many experts agree there is no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to standardized test requirements versus test-optional policies.

许多专家一致认为，在标准化测试要求和可选测试政策方面，没有放之四海而皆准的方法。

Sacerdote and Friedman both pointed to a working paper by City University of New York researchers that concluded that high school grades were more helpful in predicting academic success in college than standardized test scores at a large, urban public university system.

Sacerdote和Friedman都指出了纽约城市大学研究人员的一篇工作论文，该论文得出结论，在大型城市公立大学系统中，高中成绩比标准化考试成绩更有助于预测大学的学业成功。

“In cases like CUNY, if the test scores are not helpful as part of assessing students’ academic preparation, then I don’t see any reason to require test scores there,” Friedman said.

“弗里德曼说：”在纽约市立大学这样的情况下，如果考试成绩对评估学生的学业准备没有帮助，那么我认为没有理由要求考试成绩。

Sacerdote added, “It’s definitely not for me to say just because we found this at Dartmouth, every institution should step up and do it the same way we do it.”

萨瑟多特补充说：“我绝对不能因为我们在达特茅斯发现了这一点，就说每个机构都应该站出来，像我们一样去做。”

Jacobs voiced a similar sentiment for the test-optional camp.

雅各布斯对可选测试阵营表达了类似的观点。

“We’re not sitting on a high horse at the University of Vermont,” Jacobs said. “It was the right thing to do for our university per our vigorous data analysis.”

“雅各布斯说：”我们佛蒙特大学并没有高高在上。“根据我们积极的数据分析，这是我们大学应该做的事情”。