Johns Hopkins is the Latest Highly Selective School to Reinstate SAT/ACT Testing Requirements

In August, Johns Hopkins University joined the ranks of other highly selective universities in its decision to reinstate admission testing requirements. 2024 has seen the tides turning, as many of the top schools in the country have officially reinstated testing.

February: Dartmouth, Yale

March: Brown, UT Austin

April: Harvard, Caltech, Cornell

June: Stanford

While the Johns Hopkins admissions office encourages applicants to submit testing for the current admissions cycle, starting in the fall of 2025, testing will be required for undergraduate admissions to the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences and the Whiting School of Engineering.

Johns Hopkins made this decision after a comprehensive review of the academic research and internal analysis of student data from its pandemic-inspired experience with test-optional admissions. Like so many other selective schools, Johns Hopkins found that test scores helped predict student success, and students who would have benefited from submitting scores withheld them under the test-optional policy.

Test scores predicted academic performance

The data analysis found that test scores were a robust and reliable predictor of performance in the first two years of college. Hopkins students who applied without test scores had lower GPAs than test submitters when controlling for other relevant variables. Students who did not submit test scores achieved GPAs, on average, that were “statistically similar to the average GPA of students whose submitted test scores were in the bottom quartile of the test score distribution.” Non-submitters were also more likely to receive grades of D and F and to withdraw from courses.

Test submitters fared better in the admissions process

Johns Hopkins revealed that students who submitted test scores fared better in the application review process. This can be due, in part, to “the admissions office seeking to gain confidence in the math preparation of applicants who indicate an interest in math-intensive courses of study like engineering and natural sciences.” Additionally, the academic review cited evidence of the increasing predictive power of test scores, compared to the declining power of high school GPA to predict college grades.

Top engineering programs are moving back to test-required admissions

There is a clear trend emerging where many of the schools with the most prestigious engineering programs are reverting to test-required admissions. The US news ranking of the top graduate-level engineering programs (which correlate highly with the undergraduate list) now includes many of the schools that require admissions testing.

GA Tech reinstated testing requirements in 2021, MIT and Purdue in 2022, Stanford, Caltech, UT Austin, Cornell and Johns Hopkins in 2024. It would be no surprise for Carnegie Mellon to join the ranks of these schools as its website mentions, “we encourage students to submit 11th or 12th grade SAT or ACT scores,” and “School of Computer Science applicants are strongly encouraged to submit either an SAT or ACT.” Validating the math skills of aspiring engineers and other STEM students is a primary function of the admissions tests.

UPenn could also easily join the ranks of test-required admissions, as its data were used in the Opportunity Insights research which validated testing as a powerful predictor of academic performance.  At present, 7 of the 12 members of the Ivy Plus research cohort have officially reinstated testing requirements.  

It would not be surprising if other public schools on this list (other than the UC system) chose to reinstate testing, especially given the precedent set by the University System of Georgia. The Georgia system required admissions testing for its flagship institutions, UGA and GA Tech, but has recently announced the expansion of test requirements to include numerous other schools in the state system. State systems such as those in Georgia, Florida, and Tennessee have all found testing to be a valuable tool for admission.

Johns Hopkins has joined the growing ranks of highly selective test-required institutions. The return to testing will continue into the fall and beyond as schools evaluate their own institutional data, come to their conclusions, and announce their new policies. We will keep you posted as this story unfolds.

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