by Stephanie Lundquist-Arora
As published in iWFeatures

Several universities have recently reversed policies put into place during the pandemic to make standardized tests optional for applicants. At the end of May, Yale joined all the other Ivy League universities, in addition to Stanford and Caltech, in announcing its reinstated SAT or ACT test requirement for future admissions cycles.

In the spring of 2020, when testing centers nationwide closed at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, hundreds of universities understandably adopted test-optional policies so that students unable to take standardized exams would not be disadvantaged in the admissions process. However, many institutions extended these policies for multiple years as a way to increase diversity in admissions.

The University of California (UC) system went further, adopting a “test-blind” policy under which standardized test scores are not considered, even when applicants choose to submit them. 

Spoiler alert: It’s not working out so well for them.   

A letter signed by thousands of UC faculty to bring back standardized testing states, “[I]n the last five years, the number of students whose mathematics skills fall below high school level increased nearly thirtyfold; moreover, 70% of those students fall below middle school levels, reaching roughly one in twelve members of the entering cohort.”

Perhaps this helps explain why, according to an admissions officer last month, Purdue University—home to one of the nation’s premier engineering programs and a school that requires applicants to submit standardized test scores—consistently attracts a large number of out-of-state applicants from California. 

The UC system was once regarded as one of the nation’s premier public university systems. Now, many of its students can’t even do high school math, and elite Californian students are migrating to Indiana in search of a college that cares about their math aptitude more than their race.

And yet, as UC continues to make headlines for its decline, university leaders remain divided over whether standardized test scores should play a role in admissions. In June, after receiving a letter from UC faculty, the admissions board announced it would explore reinstating a testing policy for the Fall 2028 application cycle. Last week, however, the board abruptly rescinded that timeline. The university has not publicly explained the reversal, fueling speculation that pressure from DEI advocates—who largely backed the test-free policy—are derailing the effort to return to merit-based admissions. 

Identity-over-merit advocates have also pushed to eliminate test requirements in primary schools, and have succeeded in some selective magnet high schools. In Virginia, for example, Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJ), which for more than a decade was ranked the nation’s top public high school, eliminated its entrance exam in 2021. This decision, in addition to several other major changes to TJ’s admissions process, has forced the once highly selective school to provide remedial math support to some incoming freshmen. Not surprisingly, the school has since dropped in national rank, and the number of National Merit Semi-Finalists decreased by half, from 157 in 2020, to 81 in 2025.

Despite what DEI advocates might say, no student is helped by lowering academic requirements and standards. Last month, TJ’s administrators notified many students that they would not be permitted to walk with their classmates for graduation because they did not pass the school’s required math class. The letter stated, “Due to their current grade in AP Calculus BC and previous grade in Math 5 (F) [redacted Jefferson student name] will not receive a TJHSST Diploma and is instead on track to receive a FCPS Advanced Diploma…Per FCPS regulations, students not receiving a TJHSST Diploma are not automatically permitted to participate in the graduation ceremony.”

Elite academic programs are designed to challenge students. Lowering admissions standards in the name of equity risks placing students in environments where they will likely struggle while also diluting the rigor that made these institutions exceptional. Placing students into highly selective programs without the preparation needed to succeed does not level the playing field; it shifts the burden onto students, teachers, and institutions.

It’s time for universities and magnet schools such as UC and TJ to reconsider the lessons from the past several years. Eliminating standardized testing or entrance exams as a tool in admissions has not delivered the promised solution, but is rather a failed social experiment that has reached its natural conclusion. 

Northern Virginia resident Stephanie Lundquist-Arora writes about education.