Princeton will require undergraduate applicants to submit SAT or ACT test scores beginning with the 2027–28 admission cycle, the University announced Thursday. The decision will end a seven-year stint of test-optional undergraduate admissions that began during the pandemic.
Several peer institutions including Harvard, Penn, and Brown, have announced in the past year and a half that they would require standardized tests, with changes set to take place in the application cycles during the 2024–25 or 2025–26 school years. Yale, meanwhile, has adopted a test-flexible policy allowing students to choose from SAT, ACT, Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate scores to submit. Columbia has become permanently test-optional.
Many peer institutions had announced these changes in March or April to begin in the application cycle the next fall. The University’s announcement is significantly early in comparison, applicable beginning with the entering Class of 2032, students who will matriculate two admissions cycles from now in the fall of 2028.
Like many of its peers, the University said that test scores helped predict academic success among undergraduates.
“The decision to resume testing requirements follows a review of five years of data from the test-optional period, which found that academic performance at Princeton was stronger for students who chose to submit test scores than for students who did not,” the University said in a statement.
In June 2020, the University announced that it would pause its standardized testing requirement for the 2020–21 application cycle because of the COVID-19 pandemic and reduced access to testing centers.
It later extended that decision for the 2021–22, 2022–23, and 2023–24 admissions cycles.
The Class of 2029 is the first class to have experienced COVID-19 prior to high school. About 22% of the Class of 2029 did not submit test scores when applying, according to The Daily Princetonian’s Frosh Survey.
The only exception for score submissions will be for active military personnel, as their lack of access to testing sites may inhibit their ability to submit scores in the timeline that applications require.
“Active members of the military who opt to apply to Princeton without an SAT or ACT score will not be at a disadvantage in our process,” the University said in its press release.
Princeton has maintained that its application review is holistic and not based on any one metric.
“Standardized testing is just one element of the University’s comprehensive and holistic application review. There are no minimum test score requirements for admission. All information in each student’s application is considered in the student’s individual context,” the University said in its press release.
Cynthia Torres is an associate News editor, and archives contributor. She is from New Bedford, Massachusetts and typically covers University administration. She can be reached at ct3968[at]princeton.edu.
Please send corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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