The Test-Optional Question

For four years, the families I’ve worked with have heard “test-optional” and translated it as either A) “tests don’t count anymore” or B) “they’re not actually optional for my kid.” I get the instinct. The first was a relief to hear, and for a stretch there it was even close to true at a handful of places. The second was just an assumption that this was true for other people who didn’t look the same, come from the same city, or have the same set of circumstances.

As the 2026-27 season kicks off, it’s looking like option B has more truth to it than many of us would like to think.

For the first time since before the pandemic, in the 2025-2026 cycle, more applicants submitted scores than didn’t. Something like 784,000 students sent a score with their application as of the March reporting window, and the number reporting a score outnumbered the number who didn’t for the first time in years. What makes this confusing is that the vast majority of colleges are still, on paper, test-optional. Only about five percent of Common App member schools actually require a score. So, both things are true at once... most schools don’t require testing, and testing came roaring back.

Here’s why that happens. In an era when a huge share of applicants show up with near-perfect transcripts (thanks grade inflation), a strong score is one of the few outside metrics a college can use to separate two students who look identical on grades. Look at Tufts. A little over half of applicants submitted scores, and roughly three-quarters of admitted students had. Emory is staying test-optional, but they are asking admissions officers to pay far more attention to submitted tests than they have in the past. I think we can read between the lines there.

So, what do you do with all this if you are a junior this summer or a parent watching from the side?

First, do not treat any school’s policy as settled based on what you read last year. Policies are shifting fast, and the counselor blogs are openly contradicting each other right now on schools like Columbia and Princeton. I pull testing policy from the admissions office’s own page, for every school on the list, in August, because that is the only version that is current (and it’s a moving target).

Second, if a student’s score lands inside or above a school’s middle-fifty range, I almost always suggest submitting. A strong score does double duty at test-optional schools, helping the read and often unlocking merit money. In the edge cases, we’ll make these decisions test by test and school by school.

Third, if testing is a real weak spot and prep isn’t closing the gap, that is worth knowing early, because it might reshape the way we think about your list, your time, and your approach to the whole process. There will always be amazing options and sometimes, even if, yes, a test would “help” your case, the time and money you’d spend on prep might be better used on a passion project, research, or something else we haven’t even thought of yet. For now, one day, one school, and one test at a time!