The Common Application for this college admissions cycle is now open, and roughly 1.5 million students will likely use it to apply. Many will aim for the “best” college, usually defined by some mix of U.S. News & World Report ranking, prestige and admit rate. They are not alone. Our culture focuses more on admissions than any other part of college.

But getting in should not be the primary focus. “Admissions” names the first step, not the end goal. We need academic underwriters, not admissions officers, to vet students and ensure that they have access to positive outcomes. That’s the goal of college: to graduate and succeed in life.

Yet most colleges do not even require information that would help them provide access to better outcomes. Grades, which have never been higher, are now disconnected from a student’s actual academic preparedness, which has never been lower. In 2024, according to the Nation’s Report Card, only 33% and 35% of 12th graders were considered academically prepared for entry-level college math and reading, respectively. Yet rampant grade inflation hides this lack of preparedness.

Colleges need an objective measure more than ever, but many remain test-optional, long past the initial justification that COVID-19 prevented access to SAT and ACT testing. The University of California even refuses to consider SAT and ACT scores if submitted, a step even more unreasonable than simply not requiring test scores. In the name of access, these colleges ignore the vetting process that determines whether they are providing access to positive outcomes.

The result is predictable: When loan underwriters refuse to use information to evaluate an applicant’s financial preparedness for a loan, more of the loans they issue fail. We saw the disastrous consequences of lackadaisical vetting, which contributed to the 2008 crash and the Great Recession, and mortgage lenders are now required to verify income and assets.

The consequences of test-blind admissions are similarly unsurprising: At test-blind University of California at San Diego, the percentage of incoming freshmen placed into remedial math went from 1% in 2016 to 12% in 2025, and more than 70% of those students were not proficient in middle school math. A quarter of the students in the most remedial math course had perfect 4.0 GPAs in high school math — their grades were worse than useless. Unvetted students suffered the consequences: Those placed in remedial math were more likely to fail or withdraw from the first required calculus class for psychology, biology, and science, technology, engineering and math majors.

Test-blind UC Berkeley has had similar, predictable results. Like a loan underwriter who asks for financial documents after giving out a loan, UC Berkeley now discovers who is unprepared through math tests taken after students enroll. Students who arrived with “severe deficits” in math did not pass Calculus I, an early prerequisite for STEM majors, at nearly 12 times the rate of well-prepared students: 46% versus 4%. Preparedness is knowable — a standardized measure reveals it. The only question is whether colleges look before admitting a student, when the information can still help, or after, when it’s too late.

Test scores are not perfect, and they should never be the only factor, but they should be at least one factor seriously considered. They are one of the best tools colleges have to improve student outcomes. Harvard University think tank Opportunity Insights found that test scores are 3.9 times as good at predicting first-year GPA at selective colleges as high school grades. The University of California’s own testing task force found that scores predict performance for every demographic group it studied. Based on SAT scores, only about half of the least academically prepared students graduated within seven years; for the most prepared, 92% did so.

All of the Ivy League universities (and many others) have now announced a return to requiring SAT and ACT scores during the admissions process because they found that they were less able to predict a student’s success at their institutions without this information.

The job of an admissions officer is not access. It’s academic underwriting: ensuring access to positive outcomes. No bank would issue a loan without underwriting it. No college should issue an acceptance letter without doing the same, especially when the stakes are so large. Between extra debt, delayed earnings and switches from STEM into majors that often result in less pay, hundreds of thousands of dollars often hang on a student’s college outcome, money that affects their families, communities and our country. It’s better to give no access than access to negative outcomes.

When students fill out the Common Application this fall, they should apply to colleges that vet them, value their sacrifice of time and money, and put their success first.

College is a lifetime buy-and-hold investment. No take-backs. Choose yours wisely.

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David Blobaum is the CEO of Summit Prep. He is also on the board of directors and is director of outreach for the National Test Prep Association, a nonprofit that works to support the appropriate use of testing in admissions.

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