Wisconsin's public universities are closer than ever to permanently doing away with SAT and ACT score requirements for incoming freshmen, a shift that would end a policy dating back to 1989. The Universities of Wisconsin Board of Regents Education Committee discussed a first reading on the plan last Thursday, and if the full board signs off at a future meeting, the change takes effect immediately across all 13 UW campuses.
The move builds on six years of temporary waivers that began in 2020, as reported by Urban Milwaukee. Test scores had been a required part of UW admissions for decades before the pandemic prompted the system to suspend that mandate, and the regents most recently voted in April to extend the waiver through the high school class of 2027, according to Universities of Wisconsin. That April action, Resolution 12464, formally extended the suspension of Regent Policy Document 7-3's testing mandate through the 2027-2028 academic year.
Julie Amon, associate vice president for enrollment and student success, told the board that making the policy permanent would let applicants decide for themselves whether test scores reflect their abilities. The proposed change, per the same account, lets students weigh their own experiences, educational journeys and academic goals before deciding whether to submit a score at all. Amon also noted that more than 2,000 institutions nationally remain test-optional or test-blind, and administrators argue the shift would help UW schools compete for enrollment regionally and nationally.
What the Research Found
The case for dropping the requirement rests heavily on years of internal research. UW-Madison's Student Success Through Applied Research Lab, known as SSTAR, studied performance data from before and after the 2020 test waiver, according to meeting materials reviewed by the Universities of Wisconsin Board of Regents. That research found high school GPA is a stronger predictor of college completion than standardized test scores, and that ACT scores showed no meaningful correlation with first-to-second-year retention across UW campuses.
A 2024 expansion of the SSTAR Lab's work looked specifically at first-year GPAs, retention and four-year completion rates, finding that first-year GPAs stayed consistent from 2018 through the periods before and after test scores were required. That research also concluded that course rigor, leadership and extracurricular activities were better indicators of future college success than a standardized test score. UW officials say student academic performance overall has remained steady or improved since 2020, when the waiver first took effect.
How Wisconsin Students Already Get In Without Test Scores
Even before this proposal, the state had already rebuilt much of its admissions pipeline around class rank and GPA rather than test scores. Under 2023 Wisconsin Act 95, signed into law in February 2024, high school seniors in the top 5% of their class at the end of 11th grade are guaranteed admission to UW-Madison, according to the Wisconsin Legislature. Those in the top 10% are guaranteed admission to the state's other 12 public universities, none of which requires a test score under the program known as the Wisconsin Guarantee.
A separate initiative, Direct Admit Wisconsin, launched for high school juniors in 2024 and offers proactive admission to 10 of the 13 UW campuses based solely on 11th-grade GPA and coursework, excluding UW-Madison, UW-Eau Claire and UW-La Crosse. Participation includes high schools attended by roughly 90% of Wisconsin high school juniors, according to the Green Bay Area Public School District. Together, the Wisconsin Guarantee and Direct Admit Wisconsin already give many qualified juniors an early path into UW schools without ever submitting an SAT or ACT score.
There is one notable exception carved into state law. In-state homeschooled applicants still must submit standardized test scores to qualify for automatic admission, since they lack the traditional high school class rank the GPA-based pathways depend on. Those students need an ACT score in the 98th percentile for UW-Madison or the 90th percentile for the system's other campuses, according to the UW-Madison Office of Admissions and Recruitment.
The ACT Isn't Disappearing From Wisconsin Classrooms
Regardless of what UW regents decide about admissions, Wisconsin high schoolers aren't done with the ACT. Since the 2014-2015 school year, the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction has required and state-funded the ACT exam with writing for all public high school 11th graders as part of statewide accountability testing. That means every junior in a Wisconsin public high school will keep sitting for the exam.
A National Split Over Testing
Wisconsin's move fits a broader pattern among large public university systems, even as elite private schools head the opposite direction. Data tracked by FairTest for the 2026-2027 application cycle shows that 86.4% of nearly 2,200 verified U.S. bachelor's-degree-granting colleges are test-optional and another 3.6% are test-free, leaving only about 7% still requiring scores, as reported by Forbes. The California State University system permanently dropped its SAT/ACT requirement back in March 2022, well before UW's current proposal took shape.
But highly selective institutions — including MIT, Dartmouth, Yale, Brown, Harvard, Stanford and UT Austin — require test-score submissions. Those schools cited high school grade inflation and the predictive value test scores can offer, and Ivy League schools are largely among the institutions that have returned to requiring them, per Urban Milwaukee's reporting. Meanwhile, more than 1,100 STEM faculty members at the University of California petitioned the UC Board of Regents in mid-2026 to restore standardized math testing, according to the Score At The Top.
For now, the UW System's proposal remains at the first-reading stage, with the full Board of Regents still needing to hold a final vote before the permanent policy takes hold. Until then, the current waiver — extended in April through the class of 2027 — remains in effect at all 13 campuses.
