Two Important Shifts in College Admissions This Fall

By Jessica Williams

As we move into the new application cycle, there are two significant changes worth flagging for students applying to college this year.

Standardized testing is making a comeback. Six of the eight Ivy League schools — Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, Brown, Cornell, and Penn — now require test scores, with Princeton and Columbia set to follow for the 2027-28 cycle. MIT, Caltech, Stanford, and Georgetown also require scores, as do the University of Alabama (for applicants with a GPA under 3.0) and the public university systems in Florida and Georgia. 

If any school on your list is even moderately selective, I would recommend planning to take the SAT or ACT. Test-optional policies have been shifting quickly, and we don’t want your family caught off guard if a school’s requirements change before application season.

At the same time, several schools have scaled back their essay requirements. Georgia Tech, Tulane, UNC-Chapel Hill, the University of Georgia, the University of Miami, and the University of Washington have eliminated their supplemental essays altogether. Cornell removed its universitywide essay, Yale dropped its “Why Yale” prompt, and Wake Forest reduced its essay requirement to a single prompt while adding a letter of recommendation.

These kinds of changes are exactly why we don’t build a college list around any single school’s current policy. Here at School First, we build college lists around where your student will genuinely thrive, and then adjust our application strategy to fit whatever each school requires. Policies will continue to change; the right fit for your student won’t.

As always, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our team of experienced college consultants with questions about how these changes affect your student’s specific list and how to prepare the best application for admission!

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