U. of Texas at Austin returns to standardized testing requirements
The University of Texas at Austin said Monday it would again require standardized testing for admissions, becoming the latest selective university to reinstate SAT or ACT score requirements that were abolished during the pandemic.
A few years ago there were about 2,000 colleges across the country began to refrain from requiring test scores, at least temporarily, amid concerns that have fueled inequality. But a growing number of these schools have reversed these policies, including Brown, Yale, Dartmouth, MIT, Georgetown and Purdue, with several schools announcing the changes in recent months.
UT Austin, which admits a cross-section of high-achieving Texas students under a plan designed to expand opportunity in the state, cited a slightly different reason than the other schools for returning to testing requirements. Without requiring test scores, officials said, they were stymied in placing admitted students in programs for which they would be best suited and in determining which ones needed additional help. After making test scores optional in recent years, the university will now require applicants to submit SAT or ACT scores starting August 1, with applications for admission until fall 2025.
Jay Hartzell, president of UT, said in an interview that the decision followed an analysis of students who did not submit scores. “We looked at our students and found that in many ways they were not doing so well,” said Dr. Hartzell.
Those who oppose the testing requirements have long said that standardized tests are unfair because many students from affluent families use teachers and coaches to improve their scores. But recent data has raised questions about the claim. In reinstating the testing requirements, some universities have said that making scores optional had the unintended effect of harming prospective students from low-income families.
For example, Brown said that some students from less privileged backgrounds had chosen not to submit scores under the test-optional policy, even when submitting them could actually have increased their chances of admission.
But UT Austin operates under a race-neutral admissions rule adopted more than two decades ago to admit a broader group of students, automatically admitting those in Texas who graduated in the top 6 percent of their high school classes.
Of Texas students admitted to college, 75 percent are considered “automatic admission.” Other Texas students, as well as out-of-state students, are evaluated through a “holistic” admissions process that includes standardized test scores. During the admissions process for last year’s entering class, 42 percent of students chose to submit their test scores.
Miguel Wasielewski, the university’s vice provost, said many of these students have a 4.0 grade point average. “There’s just not a lot of variation,” he said, adding that test scores provide more detailed information that helps determine placement.
At UT Austin, students are asked to rank their choices from three programs of study. Test scores help the university place these students in majors where it believes they can succeed and identify students who need more support, as part of an effort to increase graduation rates. The university’s four-year graduation rate increased from 52 percent in 2013 to 74.5 percent in 2023.
The scores are especially important in determining which students will do well in the university’s more rigorous programs, such as engineering and business, said Dr. Hartzell.
According to the university’s figures for the current freshman class, which admitted a group of 9,217 students last fall, students who submitted test scores were 55 percent less likely to have a first-semester GPA of less than 2.0, the university said.
Those who submitted test scores had higher GPAs — an average of 0.86 points higher — in the fall semester, according to the university, which said the data was controlled for factors such as high school grades and class rank.
Dr. Hartzell said the university consulted with the College Board, which directs the SAT, and found that nearly 90 percent of students applying to UT Austin have taken the SAT or the ACT.