Columbia Completes Ivy League Return to Mandatory Testing for 2027-28

The Ivy League's unified return to mandatory standardized testing is now complete. Columbia University has announced it will require applicants to submit SAT or ACT scores for the 2027-2028 admissions cycle, becoming the last of the eight Ivies to reinstate a testing mandate, according to its official undergraduate admissions page and a report from Higher Ed Dive. This move follows a wave of similar reinstatements by its peers over the past two years, effectively ending the test-optional era for the entire Ivy League.

While Columbia will remain test-optional for the upcoming 2026-2027 cycle, its policy shift for the following year solidifies a major reversal in elite admissions. As noted by sources including CollegeWise and Oriel Admissions, six other Ivies—Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, Brown, Cornell, and the University of Pennsylvania—had already reinstated testing requirements for the current 2026-2027 admissions cycle. Princeton University had previously announced a requirement for the 2027-2028 cycle, the same timeline as Columbia.

The collective shift marks a decisive end to the widespread test-optional policies adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Admissions experts cite institutional studies, like Dartmouth's widely-publicized internal review, which concluded that test scores are a valuable predictor of academic success, especially for identifying high-achieving, lower-income applicants. With Columbia's decision, the Ivy League is once again unified in requiring standardized test scores, setting a clear expectation for future applicants targeting the nation's most selective universities.