HANOVER, N.H. – Dartmouth College is reinstating its standardized testing requirement for undergraduate applicants, reversing a change made at the start of the pandemic nearly four years ago.

Dartmouth is the first Ivy League school to announce it is moving away from “test-optional” admissions. The new policy will start with prospective students for the Class of 2029. 

“For Dartmouth, the evidence supporting our reactivation of a required testing policy is clear,” the school based in Hanover, New Hampshire said in a statement. “Our bottom line is simple: we believe a standardized testing requirement will improve — not detract from — our ability to bring the most promising and diverse students to our campus.”

Standardized testing has value, Dartmouth says

SAT and ACT scores are a “key method” to help determine which students will succeed at Dartmouth, according to a study commissioned by school president Sian Beilock.

Dartmouth said researchers found that test scores help the school identify high achievers “from less-resourced backgrounds.” They also learned that the test-optional policy apparently discouraged some low-income students from submitting scores in their applications, even when those scores would have helped strengthen their candidacy. 

“Contrary to what some have perceived, standardized testing allows us to admit a broader and more diverse range of students,” Dartmouth said.

Starting this spring, the SAT will only be available to take online and will be significantly shorter than past exams. 

Why some colleges dropped standardized testing

When Dartmouth announced it was going test-optional in 2020, the COVID pandemic was making it difficult for students to take or retake tests. The college said then that test-taking and preparation were “not good uses of a student’s time, money, or emotional energy during an ongoing public health crisis.”

Aside from pandemic challenges, some experts also said at the time that test scores were not a good predictor of success at the college level. Some colleges like the University of California went “test-blind,” completely ignoring exam scores and instead focusing on high school GPA, college application essays and other considerations. 

Harvard University also dropped testing requirements in 2020, and a year later said submitting SAT or ACT scores would not be necessary until at least 2026. MIT is one of the few schools that bucked the trend, announcing in 2022 it would bring back the standardized testing requirement.

“Holistic admissions” process

While the testing requirement is back, Dartmouth says test scores will never be the primary factor in its “holistic admissions” process.  

“As always, the whole person counts, as do the environmental factors each person navigates,” Dartmouth said.