Harvard Reinstates Standardized Testing Requirement Post-COVID Shift

Harvard College will once again require applicants to submit standardized test scores, the Ivy League school announced Thursday, years after it dropped the requirement during the coronavirus pandemic.

Harvard unveiled the change through a statement from its Faculty of Arts and Sciences dean, Hopi Hoekstra. Starting next year, Hoekstra said, prospective undergraduate students must submit their SAT or ACT scores when applying to Harvard.

“This decision to return to requiring testing was motivated by a number of factors. Standardized tests are a means for all students, regardless of their background and life experience, to provide information that is predictive of success in college and beyond,” Hoekstra wrote. “In short, more information, especially such strongly predictive information, is valuable for identifying talent from across the socioeconomic range.”

Harvard is one of the last elite U.S. universities to reinstate the requirement—Dartmouth, Yale, and Brown announced similar changes in recent weeks, while the Massachusetts Institute of Technology reinstated its standardized test requirement in 2022.

Harvard was initially slated to forgo its standardized test requirement through the class of 2030, citing “limited access to testing sites due to COVID-19.” Thursday’s announcement has cut that commitment short by one year.

Critics have long asserted that standardized testing helps students from wealthier families who have easier access to test prep classes and other educational opportunities.

New research conducted by the Harvard-affiliated Opportunity Insights group, however, found that standardized testing can help identify standout applicants from low-income backgrounds.

“Critics correctly note that standardized tests are not an unbiased measure of students’ qualifications, as students from higher-income families often have greater access to test prep and other resources,” said Opportunity Insights director Raj Chetty. “But the data reveal that other measures—recommendation letters, extracurriculars, essays—are even more prone to such biases. Considering standardized test scores is likely to make the admissions process at Harvard more meritocratic while increasing socioeconomic diversity.”

David J. Deming, the academic dean of the Harvard Kennedy School, praised the school’s policy change.

“Not everyone can hire an expensive college coach to help them craft a personal essay. But everyone has the chance to ace the SAT or the ACT,” Deming said Thursday.