Another Ivy League institution has elected to reinstate mandatory standardized testing after making it optional for undergraduate applicants since the COVID-19 pandemic.
On Friday, the University of Pennsylvania announced it would require SAT or ACT scores in the upcoming admissions cycle in order to bring “clarity and transparency to the application process.”
[RELATED: Yale reverses ‘test-optional’ admissions policy]
”Beginning with the 2025-2026 undergraduate admissions cycle, Penn is reinstating a standardized testing requirement for applicants, with the goal of bringing clarity and transparency to the application process,” the school writes. “Beginning with the 2025-2026 undergraduate admissions cycle, Penn is reinstating a standardized testing requirement for applicants, with the goal of bringing clarity and transparency to the application process.”
The university will accommodate those applicants “facing hardship in accessing testing” by allowing them to apply for a test waiver option.
”Penn pivoted to a test-optional policy in 2020-2021 to accommodate applicants facing significant hurdles accessing testing due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” the school states. “By returning to a testing requirement, Penn aims to remove uncertainty for applicants trying to decide whether to include their test scores.”
UPenn’s update does say that the school has reevaluated implementing mandatory testing each year since the pandemic, and now has officially made the changes during the first year of the new Trump administration.
”Penn’s practice has been, and continues to be, considering a student’s school-based academic record on its own merit, with testing as part of Admission’s broad and comprehensive assessment,” the university notes.
The policy update arrives less than a month after President Trump signed an executive order on “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-based Opportunity,” which says that Americans “should not be stigmatized, demeaned, or shut out of opportunities because of their race or sex.”
[RELATED: University of Miami is latest college to reinstate mandatory standardized testing]
UPenn officially becomes the sixth Ivy League school to reinstate mandatory standardized testing for undergraduate applicants.
Previously, Cornell University was the last Ivy League institution to eliminate its test-optional policy in April 2024, with James Dean of the Cornell Chronicle noting that the practice may have had “inadvertent consequences.”
This article was originally published at campusreform.org
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