Columbia Announces Test-Required Policy for 2027-2028, Completing Ivy League Reversal

Columbia University has announced it will require standardized testing for undergraduate applicants starting in August 2027, marking the final Ivy League institution to return to test-required admissions and effectively ending the test-optional era across the Ivy+ landscape. The university confirmed it will remain test-optional for the 2026-2027 admissions cycle before implementing the new requirement.

According to Columbia's official admissions website, "Columbia will require standardized testing starting in August 2027" while maintaining test-optional status for the current application cycle. This announcement, made in June 2026 according to social media reports, completes a dramatic reversal across elite institutions that began with Dartmouth's February 2025 announcement and continued with Yale's May 2026 policy change.

The shift means that six of the eight Ivy League schools—Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, Brown, Cornell, and the University of Pennsylvania—now require SAT or ACT scores for the 2026-2027 cycle, with Columbia joining them for 2027-2028. As noted by Collegewise, "The Test-Optional Era is Ending at Highly Selective Colleges" with this nearly complete Ivy League reversal. The policy change comes as both the SAT and ACT have undergone significant redesigns and digital transformations, creating what one analysis calls a "bifurcated" testing landscape across higher education.