Columbia is bringing back the SAT or ACT.
That matters.
Not because one policy change suddenly rewrites college admissions.
But because Columbia was the last Ivy League holdout, and now even Columbia has decided that standardized testing belongs back in the admissions process.
Families should stop reading these announcements as isolated headlines.
They are not isolated anymore.
They are a pattern.
Columbia Did Not Change This Policy for Fun
According to Columbia’s official announcement, the university is returning to required standardized testing after a multiyear faculty review found that test scores were a useful indicator of potential student success. Columbia College and Columbia Engineering will require either the SAT or ACT for first-year and transfer applicants beginning with the 2027–2028 admissions cycle, while applicants in the 2026–2027 cycle will still be reviewed under the current test-optional policy. Columbia also said applicants who face challenges meeting the requirement may request a waiver. Note that the new requirement applies to Columbia College and Columbia Engineering — Barnard College and the School of General Studies are not subject to it.
That is not vague language.
That is not symbolic language.
That is a university saying, in plain terms, that these exams are useful enough to move back into the required category.
The Strongest Schools Keep Returning to the Same Conclusion
This is what families should pay attention to.
School after school has spent the last few years publicly reconsidering what testing does, what it signals, and whether removing it helped or hurt the admissions process.
And many of the most selective institutions keep landing in a similar place:
Scores still provide valuable information.
Columbia’s own announcement explicitly says the internal review found test scores helpful in identifying academic preparedness and future success. The Columbia Spectator also reported that Columbia’s decision comes after the other seven Ivy League institutions had already reinstated testing requirements, making Columbia the final Ivy to do so.
That is not random.
That is trend data in institutional form.
Test-Optional Sounded More Relaxed Than It Really Was
One of the biggest mistakes families make is confusing test-optional with test-irrelevant.
Those are not the same thing.
Columbia Spectator reported that 61% of admitted students submitted test scores in the 2023 cycle, and among those students, the median submitted SAT was 1540, above the 99th percentile nationally. The same reporting noted that before Columbia adopted its test-optional policy, the 2019 median admitted-student SAT score was 1505.
That matters for one simple reason:
Even when submission was optional, a large share of the strongest applicants were still bringing strong scores into the process.
So while the public conversation often sounded softer, the competitive reality stayed pretty hard.
Families Should Hear the Message Beneath the Headline
The message is not:
“Testing is everything.”
The message is:
“At the highest levels of admissions, colleges still want objective academic evidence.”
Columbia’s admissions language still emphasizes holistic review and explicitly says there are no minimum test score requirements for admission. But bringing the SAT or ACT back into the required bucket tells families that Columbia still sees value in having that information for all applicants.
That is the key distinction a lot of families miss.
A school can be holistic and still believe testing matters.
A school can evaluate the whole person and still want the score.
A school can reject score cutoffs and still treat strong testing as important evidence of readiness.
Why This Matters Even If Your Student Is Not Applying to Columbia
Most students are not applying to Columbia.
That is not the point.
The point is that Columbia is one more elite institution moving in the same direction as peers. Columbia Spectator specifically reported that Yale was the latest Ivy before Columbia to restore a testing requirement, and Columbia’s own announcement says its findings are consistent with similar conclusions reached by peer institutions.
The push is also coming from faculty, not just admissions offices. More than 1,400 University of California math and science professors have signed an open letter urging UC regents to reinstate standardized testing requirements after documenting severe preparation gaps in college classrooms — covered in detail at what UC professors are really saying about academic readiness.
So even if a student never applies to Columbia, this policy shift still matters because it tells families something broader about the admissions climate:
Strong scores still help strong applicants.
And if a student is aiming at highly selective schools, the safest strategy is not to hope testing fades back into the background again.
The safest strategy is to be prepared.
The Families Who Get Burned Are Usually the Ones Who Wait Too Long
This is where the real damage happens.
A family reads test-optional messaging too casually. They delay. They assume grades and essays will cover everything. They postpone deciding between the SAT and ACT. They push testing down the priority list until junior year is already overloaded.
Then suddenly:
the student needs a score the timeline is compressed the prep is rushed and reactive and every decision feels more stressful than it should
That is the real cost of misunderstanding the moment.
Not a theoretical admissions debate.
A weak timeline.
Strong Students Need Strong Testing Strategy, Not Wishful Thinking
If your student is ambitious, this is the wrong moment to get casual.
The better move is to build a strategy that works whether policies get tighter, stay mixed, or keep evolving.
At Crownridge Coaching, Grace Dunn works with families on exactly this kind of early, proactive planning — building a testing strategy before the calendar becomes crowded and the decisions become reactive.
That means:
- figuring out whether the SAT or ACT is the better fit — a decision worth making deliberately
- testing early enough to preserve flexibility
- taking preparation seriously before the calendar becomes crowded
- and building a score profile that helps, not one that has to be explained away later
Because the families who stay calmest later are usually the ones who planned earliest.
Columbia’s Move Is a Signal, Not Just a Headline
Columbia’s return to required testing does not mean every student needs to panic.
It does mean families should stop pretending these tests became unimportant.
Columbia reviewed the evidence and decided the SAT or ACT should come back. The official announcement says the change follows a faculty review and applies to Columbia College and Columbia Engineering applicants starting with the 2027–2028 cycle, with waivers available for those who cannot reasonably meet the requirement.
That is a signal.
And smart families pay attention to signals before they become problems.
Final Thought
Columbia was the last Ivy still holding out.
Now it is not.
That should tell families something.
Not that testing is the only thing that matters.
But that testing still matters enough that even Columbia decided it belongs back in the process.
The goal is not to chase every admissions headline.
The goal is to build a testing strategy strong enough that headlines like this do not catch your family unprepared.
