Is UT-Austin Test-Optional?
Update March 12, 2024: UT is no longer test-optional.
In a press release over spring break, UT announced a series of changes, including the requirement of the SAT/ACT for freshman applicants starting in Fall 2025.
I’ve published a blog post where I share my initial thoughts. I’ve reproduced the relevant section below while also preserving this initial test-optional post that I published in 2020.
UT-Austin going test optional isn’t surprising, given that many elite universities, like Brown, Yale, Dartmouth, Georgetown, MIT, and the University of Florida, have returned to requiring the SAT/ACT. Most universities went test-optional during COVID, but many universities are reverting to pre-COVID policies as we exit the pandemic.
What’s peculiar is that each university or public school system that chooses to require exams or remain test-optional examines similar data sets and comes to opposite conclusions. The University of California system, which remains test-blind, where test scores are not considered at all, argues that test requirements decrease access and inclusion.
In contrast, Brown argues that requiring the exam increases inclusion and access: “The data suggested unintended adverse outcomes of test-optional policies in the admissions process itself, potentially undermining the goal of increasing access. The committee was concerned that some students from less-advantaged backgrounds were choosing not to submit scores under the test-optional policy, when doing so could actually increase their chances of being admitted.”
UT-Austin’s press release makes a similar argument to pro-testing universities in general that SAT scores correlate with one’s college GPA and likelihood of graduating on time. From the press release: “Students who submitted standardized scores performed significantly better on those exams and in their first semester of college, relative to those who did not take the test or chose not to have their scores considered as part of a holistic review.”
Conversations around test requirements are extremely polarized along predictable political lines. After four years of widespread test-optional experimentation, I honestly don’t know how to make sense of the data or how I feel about whether a university should or shouldn’t require the exam. It’s all become so muddled that I can’t draw strong conclusions, and I sympathize with both pro-testing and test-optional camps. The issue is I can’t tell what’s true in an objective sense, or maybe somehow both arguments are right for different reasons.
At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what I think or how you, as the applicant and family, should feel about these policies. Since enough universities have reverted to requiring them, it’s almost certain that you will need to take the SAT. Still, I shared my thoughts in a summer 2020 post, when this movement accelerated, if you wish to read them.
My primary concern is the timing. Fall 2025 applicants only have six months to take the exams, and with the SAT going digital, it presents a study learning curve (or perhaps an opportunity for students without access to test prep to perform better on a theoretically more level playing field?) There is also a big gap between the June 1, 2024, SAT and the one on August 24, 2024, which doesn’t allow for taking the exam over the summer. The ACT has June and July testing dates though.
I would have preferred that UT and other universities require the exam for Fall 2026 applicants to allow more time for families and applicants to adjust to this new reality or at least announce this a few months ago.
Previous Content when UT was test optional
Test-optional admissions should not change much how you approach your essays or resume although I can imagine letters of recommendation may be more important to provide context to your academic abilities and achievements.
Check out my new book Surviving the College Admissions Madness and Youtube Channel
Test-optional policies are intended to increase access for, broadly speaking, low-income, rural, first-generation, single-parent, attending resource-poor high schools, or live with substantial special circumstances or hardships where standardized exams may not reflect their academic abilities and potential. I also anticipate test-optinal playing a role in straight A students who attend private or early college high schools with small (less than 100) graduating classes where it’s more difficult to rank highly.
If you’re outside of the top 6%, I suggest submitting your SAT/ACT if it’s higher than 28 or 1350. If you’re in the top 6% and want selective majors like Business, Engineering, Computer Science, Architecture, Nursing, or Geosciences, I suggest submitting your test score if it’s relatively high.
Still, I expect more than three-quarters of UT-Austin applicants to submit their test scores. UT will be as competitive as ever, and UT going test-optional will not impact most applicants. If you’re outside of the top quarter of your senior class, your admissions chances will remain very improbable even if you score a 1600.
I have no idea how test-optional policies may affect the Academic Index calculations that accounts for students opting out of the ACT/SAT. UT has not officially updated their site, but I imagine they will in the coming days.
Texas public universities do not consider nor have ever accepted nor required SAT Subject Tests for regular admission. Some Honors programs allow students to self-report AP/IB/SAT Subject Tests, however. It seems that UT’s test-optional policy applies to admissions, honors, and scholarships.
Almost all universities in Texas and across the country through 2023 have continued their test-optional policies.
Some universities require the SAT/ACT for merit scholarship consideration while others don’t, so when searching for colleges, this will be an important question to ask. Others may ask you to submit an additional essay or other documents in lieu of opting out of exam submission. Be sure to double-check any application requirements and expectations.
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Initial Thoughts on Test-Optional/Test-Blind Universities
Test-optional is new territory for me, so my beliefs and views will continue to evolve with time and data. In light of Covid-19, a record number of universities are moving away from exam requirements to increase access to student populations who may be able to take the exam. The pandemic is accelerating a trend that’s been gaining momentum over the past decade. Test-optional admissions, however, does not mean easier admissions.
Check out my new book Surviving the College Admissions Madness and Youtube Channel
Advocacy network Fair Test provides a thoughtful summary and additional resources including an updated list of test-optional schools regarding the data and debates about SAT/ACT in college admissions. The SAT/ACT is largely correlated with family income rather than any other academic metrics. The test-optional movement claims to increase college access and campus diversity while also improving retention and graduation rates..
Their June 15, 2020 press release reports:
A new tally of higher education testing policies shows that more than half of all 4-year colleges and universities will not require applicants to submit ACT or SAT scores for fall 2021 admission…Fully 85% of the U.S. News “Top 100” national liberal arts colleges now have ACT/SAT-optional policies in place, according to a FairTest data table. So do 60 of the “Top 100” national universities, including such recent additions as Brown, CalTech, Carnegie Mellon, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, UPenn, Virginia, Washington University in St. Louis, and Yale.
Test-optional universities allow students to submit official SAT/ACT and/or sometimes self-report SAT Subject Tests, AP, or IB exams. Test-blind campuses, on the other hand, do not accept any exams whether submitted or self-reported. There are many fewer test-blind universities than test-optional.
A comprehensive NACAC 2018 report surveyed and tracked almost a million students to evaluate the impact of test-optional policies. Scott Jaschik from Inside Higher Ed in an April 27, 2018 article summarizes the findings:
“The years following the adoption of a test-optional policy saw increases in the total number of applications -- by an average of 29 percent at private institutions and 11 percent at public institutions.
While the degrees varied, institutions that went test-optional saw gains in the numbers of black and Latino students applying and being admitted to their institutions.
About one-fourth of all applicants to the test-optional colleges opted not to submit scores. (The colleges studied all consider the SAT or ACT scores of those who submit them.)
Underrepresented minority students were more likely than others to decide not to submit. Among black students, 35 percent opted not to submit. But the figure was only 18 percent for white students. (Women were more likely than men to decide not to submit scores.)
‘Non-submitters’ (as the report termed those who didn't submit scores) were slightly less likely to be admitted to the colleges to which they applied, but their yield (the rates at which accepted applicants enroll) was higher.
First-year grades were slightly lower for non-submitters, but they ended up highly successful, graduating at equivalent rates or -- at some institutions -- slightly higher rates than did those who submitted test scores. This, the report says, is ‘the ultimate proof of success.’”
How does the test-optional movement influence your college list and admissions chances?
For most applicants, test-optional policies will have little to no effect on building their college list or even their admissions chances. For the fall 2021 admissions cycle, most universities including UT saw record growths in their application numbers. Paradoxically, test-optional policies have made admissions even more competitive because universities have not, for the most part, increased the size of their enrolling freshmen classes.
If you’ve scored in the top 75% of previously admitted students to your chosen university, then you may as well submit your scores. For UT, that means higher than a 28 or 1350. If you didn’t think you were especially competitive at Rice before the test-optional policy, for example, in most cases you’re probably not going to be competitive by forgoing submission of an ACT/SAT either.
Non-submitters are admitted at slightly lower rates than their test submitting counterparts, and with increased numbers of applications, it’s possible some universities will admit a lower percentage of their applicants.
There are some students who may benefit from the test-optional movement: those with much higher grades relative to their ACT/SAT; students who struggle with standardized tests and that don’t reflect their knowledge or potential; underrepresented minorities; applicants from single-parent or first-generation college families.
If you’re thinking whether to add a reach or high reach school to your list because that university has gone test-optional, consider that hundreds or thousands of applicants will be doing the same.
Many students are asking me if the test-optional movement will improve their chances. In almost all cases, the answer is no. Questions also remain whether universities will remain test-optional into 2022 and beyond, a factor for younger students.
I anticipate application numbers to increase at many universities despite the Covid-19 disruptions, so it’s likely the applicant pool will be as crowded as ever. Universities that admit less than 15% of their applicants will remain extraordinarily competitive.