Does UPenn require SAT for Class of 2023?

Academics

Decision intended to reduce applicants’ stress during pandemic

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — For high school students faced with the challenge of applying for college in a pandemic, Penn State's decision to extend, for two years, the optional submission of SAT and ACT scores may alleviate some anxiety. First-year applicants to Penn State will be able to choose whether to submit SAT or ACT scores as part of their applications through Summer/Fall 2023.

“Test cancellations during the pandemic have upended many students’ testing strategies. We have heard from many students, parents and high school counselors that this is placing a great deal of stress on applicants,” said Rob Springall, assistant vice president for Undergraduate Education and executive director of Undergraduate Admissions. “By making the SAT and ACT tests optional for an additional two admissions cycles, we hope to alleviate some of the anxiety students are feeling.”

The SAT and ACT are administered as in-person tests at high schools across the country and at testing sites around the world, and testing schedules at many locations have been disrupted or canceled entirely since March 2020. This has impacted not only high school students who are nearing graduation, but also younger students whose testing strategies include early practice tests. Penn State’s test-optional process will allow applicants to elect whether or not to submit test scores as part of their applications and to change their minds up to the point of receiving their admissions decisions.

Since Penn State implemented a test-optional process for the current admissions cycle, the option has proven extremely popular among applicants. As of Dec. 1, among first-year applicants applying for entry in Summer/Fall 2021, the option to not submit test scores has been selected by nearly 58% of all applicants and more than 67% of applicants applying to a Commonwealth Campus as first choice.

In the absence of test scores, Penn State considers other academic factors in its admissions decisions. Springall explained that Penn State has always weighed test scores less heavily than high school performance, since the latter tends to be a better predictor of a student’s success at Penn State.

For students who opt not to submit test scores, Penn State looks at the student’s academic record in high school, with special focus on the academic areas that relate to their intended major. For students who have not declared a major, the admissions team looks at the student’s overall academic performance in high school.

The test-optional program may be especially beneficial for select student populations, explained Yvonne Gaudelius, interim vice president and dean for Undergraduate Education.

“We hope that, by making the SAT and ACT optional for the next two admissions cycles, we can aid the ability of all students, but especially first-generation students and students from under-represented backgrounds, to apply to Penn State during the pandemic,” said Gaudelius.

Among students seeking entry in Summer/Fall 2021, the option not to submit test scores has proven especially popular among first-generation students and students from under-represented racial and ethnic groups, Gaudelius explained.

Findings during the test-optional period may influence how Penn State approaches admissions in the future. In the summer of 2022, after the first test-optional class has completed one full year at Penn State, the University will examine these students’ college performance to measure the utility of test scores in its admissions decision-making. The findings may reshape how Penn State utilizes test scores in its admissions process on a more permanent basis.

Penn State’s volume of undergraduate applications has remained strong during the pandemic. During the current (Summer/Fall 2021) admissions cycle, applications are up by 8% University-wide and 11% at the University Park campus, as compared to last year.

Undergraduate Admissions is part of Penn State Undergraduate Education, the academic administrative unit that provides leadership and coordination for University-wide programs and initiatives in support of undergraduate teaching and learning at Penn State. Learn more about Undergraduate Education at undergrad.psu.edu.

Last Updated January 28, 2021

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HOUSTON — Supporters of test-optional admissions often say withdrawing requirements that students provide SAT and ACT scores will help demolish barriers that prevent historically marginalized groups from applying to college.

Enrollment leaders backed that argument at a session Friday of the National Association for College Admission Counseling’s annual meeting. Presenters shared how, after establishing test-optional policies in recent years, their institutions experienced a rise in application numbers, including those from marginalized students.

NACAC attendees packed a ballroom to learn the latest on the testing landscape, suggesting continued interest in the weakening of standardized testing, which had until recently been a cornerstone of the admissions process.

A new normal

A rise in test-optional admissions can be traced to the coronavirus winding its way through the U.S. in early 2020, shutting down common exam sites. But many institutions have preserved test-optional policies even as pandemic-related restrictions eased.

In total, more than 1,800 four-year institutions aren’t mandating entrance exams for the fall 2023 admissions cycle, according to FairTest, an organization advocating for limited application of standardized assessments. 

The University of Pennsylvania saw a 34% increase in applications in 2020-21, the first year it piloted test-optional policies. Applications rose from about 42,000 to 56,000, according to Whitney Soule, the institution’s vice provost and dean of admissions, who spoke at Friday’s session.

After Penn made the change, it saw a bump in applications from first-generation and international students, as well as from students of color, Soule said. Penn sustained the boosted application numbers, and application diversity, through 2021-22, she said. 

Presenters said the pandemic emergency drove many colleges to test-optional admissions. But other institutions adopted these policies to draw more applicants. 

“Wherever you are, whatever institution you serve, you need to be thinking about the reasons behind the choice, your expectations for what will happen and change, and then follow them to see if those changes come to pass,” Soule said. 

Penn is maintaining test-optional admissions through the coming admissions cycle. 

A look elsewhere

Queens University of Charlotte, in North Carolina, put test-optional policies in place in 2019, before the pandemic, said Adrienne Amador Oddi, its vice president of strategic enrollment and communications.

That’s in part because it wanted to remove roadblocks for the contingent of students it serves, who are historically underrepresented and vastly different compared to those from Penn, Oddi said. 

About a third of Queens students are eligible for federal Pell Grants, a proxy for low-income status. Another third are the first in their family to attend college. 

Application numbers to Queens have climbed steadily over the years, from 3,134 in 2018 to 3,799 this year.

More notable, though, was a change in the university’s student academic profile after the move to test-optional admissions.

Before the shift, just over half of enrolling students met the university’s academic standards but were at the base level of what the institutions considered to be college ready, Oddi said. Queens only deemed about 6% of the class top academic performers.

After instituting test-optional admissions, in the new class, the share of enrolling students at the bottom rung of academic performance shrunk to 43%, and the top level grew to 9%, Oddi said.

Removing entrance exam requirements attracted more students who had the proper grades but felt testing constrained them and might not have otherwise applied, Oddi said. 

"We’re at that sweet spot of, ‘Should I go to college or not?,’” Oddi said. 

This year, Queens reduced the influence test scores had on how much merit aid it distributes, and found the share of top academic performers grew to 15% for the entering class. College access advocates often argue institutions that go test optional but keep exam scores in financial aid considerations defeat the purpose of test-optional admissions. 

What’s next?

At the University of California, Los Angeles, admissions have become test-free. It and every other institution within the UC system decline to review scores at all. The system largely abandoned entrance exam mandates in 2020, but made the move permanent last year. 

The number of freshmen applications jumped by 38% after the policy change, from 108,877 in 2020 to 149,815 this year. Applicants who are underrepresented students, which UCLA considers to be African American, Latinx and Native American, soared 48%, from 30,862 in 2020 to 45,569 in 2022.

Enrollment experts believe test-free policies will become more widespread down the line — The California Institute of Technology, for instance, one of the most prominent STEM institutions in the country, won’t view scores through 2025. 

Studies are also underway to determine the effects of test-optional rules on the demographics and academic chops of student bodies. NACAC landed a $1.4 million Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grant to help lead research on test-optional admissions and how it shapes enrollment patterns. 

Soule, of Penn, cautioned against analyses that link whether students submit tests to their early college GPAs. She called them reductive and said many other factors influence students’ academic success in their first college terms.

The academic experiences on campuses aren’t “entirely informed by the presence or absence of testing,” she said.

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