Harvard bringing back required standardized tests
Following in the footsteps of several Ivy League peers, Harvard University announced that it is reinstating its standardized testing requirement in undergraduate admissions beginning with the Class of 2029.
“Students applying to Harvard College for fall 2025 admission will be required to submit standardized test scores,” Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences announced Thursday. “This new policy will be applied to the Class of 2029 admissions cycle and will be formally assessed at regular intervals.”
Harvard had initially said the test-optional policy would remain in effect until applications for the Class of 2030, according to The Harvard Crimson.
Harvard, like many other schools, dropped the SAT and other standardized testing requirements in June 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic that limited access to testing. Submission of scores remained optional afterward.
Hopi Hoekstra, dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, said in a statement that several factors influenced the decision to bring back the test requirement.
Like other Ivy League schools, Harvard cited research that its professors Raj Chetty and David J. Deming and co-author
John N. Friedman published last year. Their study found that standardized tests are an important tool in identifying “promising students at less-wellresourced high schools, particularly when paired with other academic credentials.”
“Standardized tests are a means for all students, regardless of their background and life experience, to provide information
that is predictive of success in college and beyond,” Hoekstra said.
“More information, especially such strongly predictive information, is valuable for identifying talent from across the socioeconomic range,” her statement continued. “Through the admissions process, we seek to recruit students from all parts of our nation and across the world, from many walks of life, to bring with them to Harvard a universe of new questions, perspectives, and hopes for the future.”
However, the university emphasized that standardized test scores do not stand alone.
“Test scores can provide important information,” William R. Fitzsimmons, dean of admissions and financial aid, said in a statement. “However, they represent only one factor among many as our admissions committee considers the whole person.”
Harvard’s announcement followed Yale’s and Dartmouth’s February decisions to reinstate the testing requirement for undergraduate applicants.
Dartmouth College said in a statement that the “test-optional admission policy” implemented in June 2020 was never meant to become a standard practice, but rather a “short-term” pause in light of current events. The university was the first Ivy League institution to make this move.
Both universities said their decision to reinstate testing came after several years of research and study, with Yale pointing to data suggesting “test scores are the single greatest predictor of a student’s future Yale grades.”
Brown announced in March its decision to reinstate standardized testing for the Class of 2029.