Mandatory SAT testing for students looking to gain admissions to universities is becoming more prevalent moving into the 2025 admissions cycle.
According to a site about SAT test preparation, “During the Covid-19 pandemic, many colleges and universities dropped the SAT/ACT and became test optional or test free. Some schools have kept these changes in place, while others have shifted back toward requiring standardized testing” (horizoneducation.com).
The site listed some of the top universities that will be impacted by this change in the upcoming application cycle. These schools include, “Brown University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, Yale University, California Institute of Technology, Georgetown University, and University of Texas at Austin” (horizoneducation.com).
Brown University released an executive summary on their decision to make the switch, stating, “An applicant’s test scores are a strong predictor of a student’s performance once enrolled, and of their capacity to succeed in a rigorous academic environment” (president.brown.edu).
Junior David Ramirez, who is currently looking into the college application process, acknowledges that SAT scores are likely useful to colleges in their admissions decisions, but contests that the cost of taking and preparing for tests is too high for some students, and could cause them to be left out: “Yeah, if I was a college, I would look at the kid with the 1300 a lot more favorably than the kid with the 1100. But they don’t consider that if the 1100 kid had the same resources as the 1300 kid, his score might be a lot higher. It feels like every point you get will cost you another dollar.”
Ramirez’s evaluation might underestimate the amount of money it can cost to improve scores. The New York Times says that a thirty hour group class, promising an increase in SAT score by 200, costs between $1,000 and $1,600. Pricing for high-end private tutoring companies like ArborBridge can go as high as $9,000 for sixty hours of prep (nytimes).
Not all SAT-prep methods are as costly as classes though. The Official Digital SAT Study Guide is available digitally for $22.99, and College Board, the company that facilitates SAT testing, offers free resources online. On their site they say, “Students currently have access to 6 SAT practice tests in Bluebook. In February 2025, we’re making some changes and releasing additional SAT practice tests to provide students with the most relevant practice resources” (satsuite.collegeboard.org).
A site about the most effective ways to study for the SAT says, “The most effective way to prepare for the SAT is to start early because doing so opens up opportunities that diminish and disappear as time passes. An early start gives you time to take multiple SAT practice tests; identify areas of weakness and what, in particular, to study in order to improve; and to take multiple actual SATs on a convenient schedule that’s unavailable to late-starters” (scoreatthetop.com).