College admissions will likely be very different for this upcoming admissions cycle. The second half of junior year was very different for 2019-2020’s 11th graders. Colleges have acknowledged these changing circumstances. In addition, many colleges have taken the global pandemic as an opportunity to run an experiment. Will a test-optional admission cycle lead to more diversity? Will eliminating application fees? I thought it would be helpful to start a list of schools that are not considering SAT or ACT scores for admission decisions AT ALL. Test-blind schools differ from test-optional schools. The former does not consider test scores. The latter does not require them but will consider them if submitted.
I know not everyone is a fan of ranking, but I decided to list them by their rank on Forbes Top 650 Colleges 2019
Here’s my list. I hope it helps someone:
- Caltech
13 UC Berkeley (piloting a one-year test-blind study for in-state applicants)
115 Cal Poly
181 San Diego State
272 Cal State Long Beach
273 Cal Poly Pomona
295 San Jose State
300 Cal State Fullerton
309 Cal Maritime
335 Chico State
- Hampshire College (only historically test-blind school)
417 Fresno State
426 San Francisco State
434 Stanislaus State
452 University of New England
457 Sonoma State
469 CSU Sacramento
474 CSU Northridge
479 Loyola University New Orleans
492 Cal State East Bay
499 Cal State LA
500 Cal State San Bernardino
- Northern Illinois University
623 Humboldt State
Unranked CSU Bakersfield
Unranked CSU Channel Islands
Unranked CSU Dominguez Hills
Unranked CSU Monterey Bay
Unranked CSU San Marcos
Let me know in the comments below if you hear of any others.
Any open admission college (e.g. community colleges).
Some other colleges may be test-don’t-care for applicants with high enough GPA or rank.
Yes, I should have said that I was including four-year schools that have an application process where 100% of applicants aren’t accepted. I do know that the UT System is not considering test scores for admission if the in-state applicant has a high enough gpa. But they are still requiring test scores from the applicants, so I didn’t include those schools. @ucbalumnus
The Juilliard School’s admissions pages mention the SAT or ACT being required for home schooled applicants, but does not mention its use for any other applicants.
Thanks @ucbalumnus! I noticed Northern Michigan University is piloting a test-blind admissions policy for this next year, too.
There also is the list at FairTest.org. I don’t know if it has been adjusted for the pandemic-no test institutions. http://fairtest.org/university/optional
@happymomof1 That’s a list that includes test-blind, test-optional, and test-flexible schools, and it’s organized alphabetically. They’ve done a fantastic job of updating it with the constant admissions changes going on right now. There’s probably only five or six schools that are listed on College Confidential’s Test-Optional directory, but not included on FairTest yet, like Pepperdine. I wanted to make a list of just test-blind schools because there was almost thirty and I think there’s going to be more.
TEST-BLIND means SAT/ACT are not considered at all for admissions
TEST-OPTIONAL means SAT/ACT are not required at all for admission but will be considered if submitted.
TEST-FLEXIBLE is a little different. SAT/ACT are not required but will be considered if submitted. However, if the applicant does not choose to submit such scores, the applicant must replace it with “something.” What that “something” consists of varies. I’ve seen policies where you simply had to submit an actual graded assignment that had been commented on by a teacher. But I’ve also seen policies where you had to replace it with an IB diploma or three AP exam scores.
Northwestern just went test optional!
The Catholic University of America announced they will be test-blind.
Dickinson College just went test blind too!
Virginia Commonwealth University says the following: "For Spring 2021 and Fall 2021, because of the lack of standardized examinations being offered due to the public health concerns related to COVID-19, VCU will review all applications for admissions and scholarship consideration without standardized test scores. " But there are a few programs that still require scores.