Ivy Leagues Face Reality: No-Test Admissions Led To Fewer High-Achieving Applicants

After dropping test score requirements for applicants over the last several years, some so-called elite institutions are now waking up to the fact that those scores were actually pretty crucial for figuring out if an applicant was ready and capable of handling an Ivy League education.

Harvard originally implemented a test-optional policy for its applicants in 2020 during COVID-19 and intended to keep it in place up until the 2026 entering class. However, the Ivy League university suddenly reversed its decision in April 2024, reinstating its test score requirement for students entering college in 2025. Now Harvard has seen a significant decrease in applicants compared to previous years that other Ivies who kept their test-optional policies have not mirrored, according to The Harvard Crimson.

As a result of the policy change, Harvard saw an 11% decrease in applications in the 2025 admissions cycle compared to the previous year, dropping from 54,008 to 47,893, according to the Harvard Crimson. Dartmouth, Yale, and Brown saw similar decreases of 12.5% after once again requiring test score submissions, while Princeton, Columbia and Duke seem to have absorbed the excess applications by keeping in place their test-optional policies.

Harvard did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

In its decision to return to the testing requirement, Harvard cited a paper that found test scores are an important indicator for how students will perform in college. Lower standardized scores, it found, generally correlated with lower college GPAs.

A recent Harvard report found the university is increasingly struggling with grade inflation, with more than 60% of grades awarded now being A’s, up from about 40% a decade ago and just 25% twenty years back. Harvard is now questioning the “integrity of our grading,” while students fear for the “soul-crushing” burden of having to work harder for their grades.