Most universities and colleges are continuing to use test-optional admission policies, despite pressure from the Trump administration to require standardized tests.GettyDespite recent headlines about colleges and universities resuming standardized testing requirements as part of their admissions policies, the vast majority of institutions will remain test-optional or test-free for the 2027-2028 admission cycle. According to FairTest, a national center well-known for its historical opposition to standardized test requirements, 86.4% of 2,182 colleges with verifiable testing policies will be test-optional for admission decisions in fall 2027, and another 80 (3.6%) will be test-free for that period. A total of 161 institutions — 7.2%— will require SAT, ACT or other test scores, and the testing policy for 2.9% of institutions could not be verified.Those numbers provide an important perspective for interpreting a trend for several prestigious universities — both private and public — to reinstate an admission testing requirement in the past few years. Over the summer that trend was reinforced when the University of California indicated it would consider reinstating a requirement that undergraduate applicants submit scores on standardized admissions tests.In a June 11 letter, UC Academic Senate Chair Ahmet Palazoglu announced that the Academic Senate’s Board of Admissions and Relations with Schools (BOARS) had started a faculty-led process to review the university’s admissions policies, including the use of standardized tests in the first-year admissions process as well the 15 courses that high school graduates are currently required to complete.In his letter, Palazoglu acknowledged that it “has become clear that academic preparedness for college is a growing challenge.” He added “while recent faculty concerns have drawn renewed attention to these issues, BOARS’ work is designed to address these challenges in a changing educational landscape." The letter came in response to increasing concerns expressed by University of California faculty and others about the consequences of UC’s decision in 2020 to drop standardized test scores as part of its undergraduate admissions process.Last November, a report by a UC San Diego Academic Senate workgroup found that UC San Diego had seen “a steep decline in the academic preparation of its entering first-year students — particularly in mathematics, but also in writing and language skills.” And in June, more than a thousand UC professors, many in math and STEM disciplines, signed an open letter calling on UC to reinstate a SAT/ACT mathematics requirement for applicants to STEM majors beginning with the 2027 admissions cycle.As important as such developments are, it’s also the case that dozens of leading universities are continuing their test-optional or test-free admission policies. For example, of 52 public flagship universities, 44 (84.6%) remain test optional and an additional two (3.8%) are test free. Only 6 of these institutions — 11.5% — currently require standardized test scores for the next admission cycle.Among more than 90 land-grant universities, almost 90% are either test-optional or test-free, according to FairTest. However, among 12 so-called Ivy Plus institutions (the eight universities in the Ivy League plus MIT, Stanford, Duke and the University of Chicago), two-thirds required test scores for admissions this fall. “Contrary to the national media and test-prep industry narrative, there has been no national return to required testing. Nearly 93% of confirmed institutions remain test optional or free,” said FairTest Executive Director Harry Feder, in a news release. “The return to testing story is driven almost exclusively by the Ivy Plus institutions – a tiny sliver of American colleges – and the outsized coverage they receive from journalists and in outlets like the New York Times.As the debate over standardized testing continues, it’s increasingly taken on a political dimension with the Trump administration equating “merit” with scores on standardized tests and arguing that institutions that eliminate standardized test requirements may be doing so in order to promote racial balance or racial diversity in their student body. This month after Education Secretary Linda McMahon sent an open letter asking the nation’s colleges and universities to commit to several education “reforms” championed by President Trump, the Heritage Foundation followed up with its own call for a higher education overhaul — a model bill that state legislatures could use to “to codify the principles” of Trump’s “Compact For Academic Excellence in Higher Education.” That compact included a requirement that undergraduate applicants must take a standardized test such as the SAT or ACT.According to Feder, “the Trump Administration’s decision to demand standardized testing, GPA, race and gender data from colleges to determine whether university admissions meet its definition of ‘merit’, and its touting of bringing Ivy Plus institutions to heel on admissions, should not impact the ability of other colleges to determine that requiring SAT/ACT scores does not serve the school’s interests in finding the best fit of qualified candidates for admission.”He added, "given the family income and racial disparities inherent in SAT/ACT results, the push by the Administration can credibly be viewed as an effort to deny opportunity to and stunt the advancement of racial minorities and economically disadvantaged students.”