Students continue to pursue postsecondary education—particularly Latino and Black students—and a growing share of those applicants are choosing to submit SAT and ACT scores even when institutions are test-optional, according to new data from the Common Application, a platform that allows students to apply to multiple colleges and universities.
In a review of Common App data from the 2024-25 college application season, researchers found that close to 1.5 million distinct first-year applicants applied to 1,097 member institutions using the Common App to accept applications. That marks an increase of 5% from 1.42 million applicants in 2023–24.
The number of member institutions at the Common App also grew by 3%, with several large public institutions joining the platform, and it is one of the most widely used applications.
The college applicant pool continues to diversify
The number of applications from Latino and Black students grew the fastest of any race and ethnicity subgroups, with 15% growth in Latino applicants between 2023-24 and 2024-25, 12% among Black or African American applicants.
Geographic shifts also stood out: Texas became the state with the most applicants overall for the first time in 2024-25 after a few years of fast growth.
Several major public institutions in Texas started accepting Common App applications since the 2019-20 application season, likely driving interest from Texas-based applicants to use the Common App, said Brian Kim, the director of data science, research, and analytics with the platform.
Based on the Common App’s data, the 2023 Supreme Court decision outlawing affirmative action in college admissions doesn’t appear to be slowing the number of underrepresented minority applicants.
Expansion of colleges and universities accepting Common App applications and college accessibility initiatives, such as direct admissions options at universities that automatically admit students who submit an application and meet minimum requirements, could also be contributing to the growth in underrepresented minority applicants, Kim added.
More students are submitting test scores
Another major growth trend Common App researchers found this past application season had to do with students choosing to submit SAT and ACT scores even when most colleges and universities say these are optional.
During the 2019-20 application season, about 55% of member institutions on the Common App required standardized test scores. In the 2024-25 season, only about 5% of members listed this requirement.
Many colleges and universities shifted to test-optional admissions policies in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Some later shifted back to requiring these scores.
“In the post-pandemic period, everyone’s trying to kind of figure out, what exactly does test-optional mean? What exactly does test-flexible mean?” Kim said.
While first-year applicants who chose not to submit test scores in 2024-25 outnumbered those who did, the number who did submit test scores grew while the number of students who didn’t submit scores dropped slightly
First-generation students, underrepresented minority students, and students from lower-income families and communities were more likely to apply without submitting a test score, Common App researchers found. Still, as with the broader applicant pool, the number of score-submitters in these subgroups grew faster than the number of non-submitters.
“In this post-pandemic period, it makes perfect sense to me that we’re seeing some bouncing around of how students are behaving in terms of test score reporting, at least in part, because I think everyone’s still percolating through exactly what is the right thing for each person and what is required for each person,” Kim said.
Amy Kirkcaldy, a college admissions counselor with the consulting group IvyWise, works with students from higher-income families applying to highly selective colleges and universities. For these students, she said, standardized testing is firmly back on the table—including test prep, and strategizing with counselors to figure out which test scores to send and where, if any.
Deciding whether to submit scores to a test-optional institution depends on a variety of factors, Kirkcaldy said. In one scenario, if a student scores very well on their tests (such as a 35 or 36 on the ACT and a 1500 or above on the SAT), it may be worth including those results in an application, especially to a highly selective school.
For a student who is a first-generation college applicant attending a large public school with limited resources and did pretty well on the SAT or ACT, the scores might be worth submitting even if the results are slightly lower than the overall applicant pool, Kirkcaldy said.
In essence, context is key when deciding whether to use or throw away test scores, and Kirkcaldy worries that not all students have access to qualified counseling to navigate these situations, especially when increasingly common AI chatbots share information that could be inaccurate, she said.
International student applicants dip for the first time in years
The Common App researchers didn’t exclusively see growth trends this past application season.
Researchers found that international applicants declined about 1 percent between the 2023–24 and 2024–25 application seasons, marking the first decline from this applicant group since 2019–20.
Between 2022-23 and 2023-24, international applicants grew by about 13%.
Data the Common App collects don’t provide a reason for the decline this past season, though Kim noted that a lot is happening in higher education, including legal battles over the rights of international students, as President Donald Trump earlier this year moved to revoke student visas and immigration officers detained international students over participation in pro-Palestinian protests.
