University of Texas at Austin brings back standardized test requirement
School officials say lack of scores hampers their ability to place students in most suitable academic programs
The University of Texas at Austin said Monday it would again require standardized tests for admissions, becoming the latest selective university to reinstate requirements for SAT or ACT scores that were abandoned during the pandemic.
A few years ago, about 2,000 colleges across the country began to move away from requiring test scores, at least temporarily, amid concerns they helped fuel inequality. But a growing number of those schools have reversed those policies, including Brown, Yale, Dartmouth, MIT, Georgetown and Purdue, with several announcing the changes in recent months.
UT Austin, which admits a crosssection of high-achieving Texas students under a plan designed to increase opportunity in the state, cited a slightly different reason than the other schools in returning to test requirements. Without requiring test scores, officials said, they were hampered in placing the admitted students in programs they would be most suited for and in determining which ones needed extra help. After making test scores optional the past few years, the university will now require applicants to submit either SAT or ACT scores beginning Aug. 1, with applications for fall 2025 admissions.
In an interview, Jay Hartzell, the UT president, said that the decision followed an analysis of students who did not submit scores. “We looked at our students and found that, in many ways, they weren’t faring as well,” Hartzell said.
Those against testing requirements have long said standardized tests are unfair because many students from affluent families use tutors and coaches to bolster their scores. But recent data has raised questions about the contention. In reinstating test requirements, some universities have said that making scores optional had the unintended effect of harming prospective students from low-income families.
Brown, for example, said some students from less-advantaged backgrounds had chosen not to submit scores under the test-optional policy, even when submitting them could have actually increased their chances of being admitted.
But UT Austin operates under a race-neutral admissions rule adopted more than two decades ago to allow a broader group of students to attend, automatically admitting those in Texas who graduated in the top 6% of their high school classes.
Among the students from Texas admitted to the university, 75% are regarded as “automatic admits.” Other Texas students, as well as out-of-state students, are evaluated through a “holistic” admissions process that includes standardized test scores. In the admissions process for last year’s entering class, 42% of students opted to submit their test scores.
Miguel Wasielewski, the university’s vice provost of admissions, said many of those students have 4.0 grade-point averages. “There’s just not a lot of variation there,” he said, adding that the test scores provide more granular information that helps determine placement.
At UT Austin, students are asked to rank their choices among three programs of study. Test scores help the university place those students in the major where it thinks they can succeed and identify students who need more support, part of an effort to boost graduation rates. The university’s four-year graduation rate climbed to 74.5% in 2023, up from 52% in 2013.
The scores are particularly important in determining which students will do well in the university’s more rigorous programs, such as engineering and business, Hartzell said.
According to the university’s figures on its current first-year class, a group of 9,217 students admitted last fall, students who submitted test scores were 55% less likely to have a first semester GPA below 2.0, the university said.
Those who submitted test scores had higher GPAs — an average of .86 grade points higher — in the fall semester, according to the university, which said the data was controlled for factors such as high school grades and class rank.
For much of Lee Allen Jr.’s childhood, baseball seemed quite far from him.
Major League Baseball’s Royals played in his hometown Kansas City, Mo., but Allen — who is Black and lived in the inner city — didn’t come across many baseball opportunities until late in his high school years.
In January 2020, a 17-year-old Allen was invited to one of MLB’s development programs, the DREAM Series, where for the first time he was put in front of scouts and coaches to display his skills in a competitive environment.
Four years later, Allen stood on the field at the Jackie Robinson Training Complex in Vero Beach, Fla., wearing a purple, white and gold baseball uniform representing the historically Black college Prairie View A&M University, his eyes set on a pro career.
More than 200 HBCU standouts were there for MLB’s Andre Dawson Classic, a collegiate tournament for players hoping to one day crack the major leagues — and perhaps help usher in a new generation of African American stars.
“Being able to be out here and showcase my talents in front of these scouts and other guys who’s looking at us at the next level,” said Allen, now a junior infielder for the Panthers, “it feels great for me because I know that those are goals that I can reach, and they’re there.”
That’s MLB’s aim as it faces historically low numbers of Black players in the majors. A study done by The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at Central Florida found Black players represented just 6.2% of players on MLB opening day rosters in 2023, down from 7.2% in 2022. Both figures were the
lowest since the study began in 1991, when 18% of MLB players were Black.
That’s also the lowest percentage of Black participation among four of the five major professional sports — NBA, NFL, MLB, MLS — outside of the National Hockey League, where more than 90% of its players are white. MLB has tried to address that with a series of grassroots diversity initiatives.
“We are really doubling down on what we’ve done,” said Del Matthews, MLB’s vice president of baseball development, “because we are producing kids that are going to college, that are getting internships within the sport. We see more kids playing at the Division I college baseball ranks, and we see more kids being drafted into the minor leagues. And so we’re just flooding that through the various programs that we’ve had.”
There are signs of progress at the pro level. Between 2012 and 2021, 17.4% of first-round picks were Black players. That number spiked to 30% in 2022, when four of the first five selections were Black players for the first time ever — and all four were alumni of at least one MLB diversity initiative. In 2023, Black players made up 10 of the first 50 draft selections, or 20%.
Those gains haven’t bolstered MLB numbers yet, and even in the minors, Black participation has been slow to rise. When MLB recently announced rosters for its Spring Breakout exhibitions showcasing top minor league prospects, 9.5% of the players were Black — including 31 alums of MLB’s diversity programs.
MLB’s pipeline begins with an annual tour of pro-style camps in various cities across the country to identify baseball potential among inner city kids. The tour has grown each year — from 12 stops when it launched in 2018 to 18 cities now — and targets kids around 13-14 years old, just before they enter high school.
The goal is to eventually send those players to more advanced development programs, where they can get significant reps playing competitive baseball — mostly cost-free — and create relationships with pro scouts and former major leaguers that can help them down the line.
“The sport has gotten so expensive that it has eliminated a lot of our kids,” said Jerry Manuel, a former manager for the White Sox and Mets. “So we’ve got to do everything we can to get them back in the pipeline.”
The programs are mostly funded through USA Baseball, the sport’s governing body in the United States, which pays for equipment, meals and potential travel for showcases that Matthews estimated could otherwise cost upward of $700 per event. Anywhere from 1,200 to 1,500 kids are selected each year to participate in MLB’s diversity-focused programming, including the DREAM Series, Breakthrough Series, the Hank Aaron Invitational and girls baseball/ softball events. Some players attend several events per year — an opportunity that otherwise wouldn’t be feasible for many kids from lower-income families.
That’s why Sheila Moreno was grateful that her son Jadin’s introduction to baseball was through the Houston Astros’ free youth baseball league, one of more than 180 organizations affiliated with MLB’s Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI) outreach program that targets kids in underserved communities.
Jadin wants to play professional baseball overseas, Moreno said, but knowing how expensive the sport can be, she worried that expenses would hinder him before he even got his start. When Moreno came across the RBI Houston program, that gave Jadin the connections he needed to earn invites to other development showcases. He’s now a junior infielder at Prairie View.
“He didn’t have to pay anything,” Moreno said at the Andre Dawson Classic last month, “so it was very helpful. All he wanted to do was play ball. He was just looking for someone to help him with the basic skills and to put effort into him.”
The league said nearly 700 alumni of its development programs have gone on to play college baseball, with around 90% of those players being Black.
In Division I, 752 men’s baseball players — about 6% — are Black, according to the NCAA’s demographics database. That’s the highest that number has been in the last 10 years and reflects small but steady growth that MLB Chief Baseball Development Officer Tony Reagins said shows improvement in the pipeline.
Reagins added that the advocacy of former Black major leaguers like Manuel has been especially helpful in showing aspiring pros what is possible.
One of those MLB hopefuls is Termarr Johnson, who chose baseball over basketball and football — sports he said were more popular growing up in Atlanta. He participated in almost every diversity initiative MLB offered and was connected with mentors like Manuel, Ken Griffey Jr., Dave Winfield and Marquis Grissom — some of whom he can call on a whim for advice.
Johnson was the fourth overall pick in the 2022 draft. Standing in the Pittsburgh Pirates’ clubhouse before a recent big league spring training game, Johnson credited those programs for developing him on and off the field.
“The biggest thing that was helpful was them tackling the mental piece of what it takes to be a big leaguer, a great big leaguer,” Johnson said. “Them telling me little things like, ‘Tuck in your shirt when you’re out on the field. Make sure you run off the field.’ A scout sees that, people see that.”
Johnson has impressed so far as the Pirates’ No. 2 overall prospect, and he’s started his own kids camp, hoping it inspires more Black kids to play the game and stick with it, like MLB’s programs were for him.
“I don’t know if I’d be here right now if it wasn’t for that,” Johnson said.