Cornell University has announced it will reinstate standardized testing as a requirement for student admissions starting Fall 2026. This decision follows a period during which the university had adopted a test-optional policy due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The change was influenced by findings from Cornell's task force, which revealed that students who did not submit standardized test scores generally performed worse academically. This move is part of a broader trend among universities to return to merit-based criteria in admissions processes.
The real question about these elite college protests is whether universities will realize where they went wrong and rework admissions to stop selecting students based on radical politics.
'Merit' Makes A Comeback: More Universities Reinstate Testing Requirement For Admissions https://t.co/dNqjSh5t7w
The Return of Merit: More Universities Reinstate Testing Requirement for Admissions https://t.co/twKFS1mJJP
Cornell University is reinstating the standardized testing admissions requirement for applicants seeking admission for Fall 2026. | @jameslynch32 https://t.co/8GWLgvtN26
Cornell is bringing back standardized testing after going test-optional during covid and keeping it for the past few years. Cornell's task force on test-optional admissions found that students who didn't submit a test performed worse academically across multiple cohorts. https://t.co/aQcqZizsbV
Much of what ails America’s elite universities would be cured by restoring meritocracy both to student admissions and to hiring of faculty. The latter is actually harder to accomplish because ideology has so completely supplanted merit in the academy, outside the hard sciences.