Cornell University will once again require prospective undergraduate students to submit their standardized test scores, making it the latest Ivy League school to backtrack on the pandemic-era test-optional admissions policy.
Starting in the 2026 admissions cycle, all students seeking admission will have to submit an SAT or ACT score with their applications, the Ithaca, New York-based university said on April 22.
The university will remain test-optional for applicants for fall 2025 enrollment, although it encouraged students to submit their standardized test scores.
The decision is based on the findings of a Cornell task force comprising eight faculty members and administrators who spent almost four years studying the impact of suspending testing requirements in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2020, five of Cornell’s undergraduate colleges had gone test-optional, while the university’s other three colleges had adopted a test-free policy, meaning admissions officials would not take test scores into consideration whatsoever.
Analyzing admissions since then, the task force found that test scores serve as a valuable predictor of a student’s potential for academic success at Cornell when considered alongside other metrics such as high school GPA, essays, and extracurricular activities.
“Those who were admitted without test scores tended to have somewhat weaker semester GPAs, were more likely to fall out of good academic standing,” the task force wrote in its seven-page report.
There was also no “clear indication” that the test-optional policy helped increase diversity among first-year students. Instead, they found that the percentage of students from underrepresented backgrounds in first-year classes dropped from 28 percent to 25 percent as test scores continued not to be required from 2021 to 2023.
At the same time, students who elected to disclose scores to Cornell’s test-optional colleges were significantly more likely to get admitted. The report suggests that just 24 percent of applicants sent in their exam results since the test requirement was removed, but more than 42 percent of accepted students had provided scores.
“This difference could reflect the fact that, on balance, students who submit test scores are stronger applicants on other dimensions,” the task force explained. “That is, they might have stronger academic records in high school, stronger letters of recommendation, and so forth.”
The task force also urged students not to withhold scores that could boost their applications.
“Read with an appreciation for context, an applicant with a test score that may be below the average for Cornell students but that is well above average for their high school may be considered a desirable admit,” they wrote. “Test scores enable those types of decisions.”
Cornell now joins a growing list of Ivy League institutions that recently reverted to standardized testing requirements. Brown University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, and Yale University all made similar decisions after seeing a strong correlation between test scores and academic outcomes and the little-to-no-effect that test-optional admissions had on creating a diverse student body.
The other three institutions in the Ivy League—Columbia University, Princeton University, and the University of Pennsylvania—so far have retained their test-optional policies, as have more than 2,000 colleges and universities across the nation, according to FairTest, a nonprofit group advocating against standardized testing.
Last March, Columbia University made test-optional admissions permanent, saying that the decision was rooted in the belief that students are “dynamic, multi-faceted individuals who cannot be defined by any single factor.”
The New York City-based college has not required test scores from applicants since the 2020-2021 academic school year.
“We have designed our application to afford the greatest possible opportunity and flexibility for students to represent themselves fully and showcase their academic talents, interests, and goals,” Columbia said when announcing the change.
