Yale University announces change in policy regarding test scores for 2025

Yale University will again require students to include standardized test scores for 2025 admissions applicants, the school announced Thursday. 

The Ivy League university announced that it would be abandoning its test-optional policy, which it imposed under the COVID-19 pandemic as testing options were severely impacted. Going forward, the New Haven school will require prospective students to include scores, such as the ACT or SAT, with their applications.

“The experience, originally necessitated by the pandemic, has been an invaluable opportunity to think deeply about testing policy and to generate new data and analyses,” Yale said Thursday. “With testing availability now fully restored for prospective applicants around the world, we have reevaluated our policy with the benefit of fresh insights.”

According to Yale, it will, for the first time, allow applicants to report Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate exam scores in lieu of other, more popular tests. 

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Yale Admissions said it had tested both the test-optional policy, from 2020 to 2024, but ultimately decided to switch back to its test-required policy. 

“The task of selecting students from an applicant pool containing tens of thousands of highly qualified students — many more than we can admit — requires an open mind and a healthy dose of humility about our ability to predict the future. For our standardized testing policy, we have tried to take the same approach,” it said.

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“Test scores provide one consistent and reliable bit of data among the countless other indicators, factors, and contextual considerations we incorporate into our thoughtful whole-person review process,” the school added.

The admissions department clarified that it “has not, does not, and will never” rely on the test scores to approve or reject candidates but uses the additional information to “paint a picture of a student’s strengths.”

“Let’s start with what we know to be true: every standardized test is imperfect and incomplete. No exam can demonstrate every student’s college readiness or perfectly predict future performance,” the school said. “We read applications holistically, using all the information available to paint a picture of a student’s strengths and potential to contribute to a college community. An application is like a jigsaw puzzle: the picture is not complete without all its pieces.”

It added: “A student’s transcript tells our committee much about a candidate’s preparation. But testing can fill in additional parts of the picture. Tests can highlight an applicant’s areas of academic strength, reinforce high school grades, fill in gaps in a transcript stemming from extenuating circumstances, and — most importantly — identify students whose performance stands out in their high school context.”

The school ultimately said not including the tests shifted more attention to other aspects of the application which worked to the disadvantage of certain students. 

It hopes to “empower applicants to put their best foot forward” with the policy change.

Yale University is located in New Haven, Connecticut, approximately 40 miles south of its capital, Hartford.