After deciding to make standardized tests optional for applying students due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Lafayette College faculty recently voted to maintain the test-optional policy for three more years, with the option to reverse it annually.
“There wasn’t that much controversy over it,” said mathematics professor Justin Corvino, the former chair of the enrollment planning committee — a faculty committee that was dissolved in spring 2023.
The motion passed 96-24, with two abstentions at the April 1 faculty meeting, according to Clerk of the Faculty Joshua Smith.
The motion — which The Lafayette was not granted access to in its entirety — was presented by members of the Student Affairs Committee. Members of a subcommittee tasked with enrollment, chemical engineering professor Christopher Anderson and French professor Mathieu Smith-Perrot, declined and was unavailable for comment in time for publication, respectively.
The motion directed committee members to continue “coordination” with the Division of Enrollment Management and the Office of Institutional Research.
Forrest Stuart, the vice president for enrollment management, wrote in an email that the share of applicants opting out of test scores rose each year until the Fall 2025 admissions cycle, when there was a roughly 2% increase in the percentage of students submitting scores. The percentage of accepted students who didn’t submit scores also increased until that cycle, and the share of enrolled students without scores has increased overall.
In 2021, the first test-optional cycle, 49.9% of applicants applied without a score. By Fall 2025, that figure rose to 56.6%, according to Stuart. For the Class of 2028, 47.7% of accepted students and 66.9% of enrolled students did not submit scores.
Stuart also wrote that prospective engineering students have the highest percentage of test submissions, while those applying with a humanities focus have the lowest.
The exact metrics included in the motion were not obtained by The Lafayette, but Director of Institutional Research Simon Tonev confirmed it provided data on “admissions-related actions” and compared the GPA and retention rates of students who did or did not submit test scores.
Future research will include a comparative analysis of admissions, enrollment and academic performance data between test-submitters and non-submitters, according to a statement from Smith that excerpted the motion.
The faculty’s vote secured test-optional admission through the Class of 2031, though the faculty may vote to reverse it before May 1 of each admissions cycle. The motion also recommends extending the test-optional policy through the Class of 2033.
Any motion to end the policy “may be motivated by changes to the role of standardized testing in the admissions landscape or new internal data that suggest that the test-optional policy adversely affects the composition of enrollments at Lafayette College,” according to the statement.
“Although the faculty agreed to extend the test-optional policy, they asked that we continue to analyze these data as new class years join Lafayette,” Tonev wrote.
Both Corvino and Stuart also mentioned that Lafayette’s decision to remain test-optional is partially dependent on what other comparable institutions’ policies are.
“The vast majority of our peers are not returning to a test-required environment at this time,” Stuart wrote. “Many, like Lafayette, continue to evaluate student progress and performance of those who submit and do not submit scores so that the faculty can make informed decisions about our test-optional policy.”
