Elite colleges are increasingly moving to reinstate standardized testing after a period of test-optional policies, according to an argument that critics of the SAT lost the debate. The piece points to MIT’s earlier decision to bring the SAT back for math-focused predictive validity and to Columbia’s decision as the latest Ivy to reverse course. It adds that Stanford also returned to testing and that faculty letters in the University of California system are urging reinstatement because institutions report rising proportions of underprepared students in placement tests. A referenced UC San Diego report cited a near thirtyfold increase in entering freshmen whose math placement indicates below-high-school-level skills from 2020 to 2025. The central higher-ed governance issue is admissions and placement alignment: whether standardized test scores provide actionable signals when coursework remediation and student support systems are already under pressure.