Columbia University ditches standardized testing requirements for admissions

(Daily Caller) – Columbia University in New York City is no longer requiring undergraduate applicants to submit SAT or ACT scores to gain admission to the Ivy League school.

Columbia became the first Ivy League to make its temporary test-optional policy permanent with an announcement on Wednesday.

“Our review is purposeful and nuanced—respecting varied backgrounds, voices and experiences—in order to best determine an applicant’s suitability for admission and ability to thrive in our curriculum and our community, and to advance access to our educational opportunities,” the school said in its announcement. “Standardized testing is not a required component of our application.”

Columbia University will no longer require SAT or ACT scores in undergraduate admissions

The first Ivy League college to implement pandemic emergency measure as official policyhttps://t.co/NZy3g0f757

— New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) March 2, 2023

Tests were one factor used in Columbia’s admissions process to assess academic strength. Additional factors such as GPA, school difficulty, application essay, class rank, and recommendation letters have been used by the school to evaluate applicants, based on data Columbia published in September.

The school released data about its admissions process in the wake of allegations by math professor Michael Thaddeus that Columbia misrepresented data to the U.S. News & World report for its annual rankings, student newspaper Columbia Spectator reported.

Optional testing was temporarily implemented by Columbia during the covid pandemic lockdowns and the university recently extended it through the 2023 – 2024 admissions cycle, per the Columbia Spectator. Other Ivy League schools such as the University of Pennsylvania, Cornell University, Harvard University and Princeton University have enacted similar extensions to test-optional admissions.