LSU will once again require ACT scores for student applications, but no minimum

The LSU Board of Supervisors voted Friday to reinstate a requirement for applicants to its Baton Rouge campus to provide standardized test scores, but students will not need to reach a minimum score to be admitted. 

LSU dropped the requirement for students to provide ACT or SAT scores in 2018 at the direction of then-President F. King Alexander. He deemphasized standardized testing and placed more importance on recommendation letters, personal essays and extra-curricular activities. 

The changes were extremely controversial, with high profile alumni, including Board of Regents member Richard Lipsey, accusing Alexander of tearing down the progress the university had made in academics. 

Even without requiring test scores, LSU has had multiple years of freshman classes breaking previous enrollment records. 

But according to the university, retention rates for students who were admitted as test-optional applicants from 2021-24 were approximately 4% lower than their peers who submitted test scores. GPAs for those test-optional students were also 0.3 points lower. 

The average ACT score among LSU students is 27 out of a possible 36, interim Provost Troy Blanchard said. 

At first, the new test requirement policy will apply only to students with GPAs below 3.5, but then for all applicants starting with the summer 2028 semester.

Several members of the board expressed concern that requiring a minimum test score would have a detrimental impact on students from rural areas and poor families who generally do not have the same access to test preparation programs as those who live in larger cities or come from wealthier families. 

“There are plenty of kids who we want at LSU who don’t come from households where they can afford to get that additional help on testing,” board member James Williams said. “There seem to be very compelling reasons for us to use test scores as one criteria, but not determinative and mandatory.” 

Blanchard assured Williams and other concerned board members test scores will be just one part of what LSU’s admissions team is taking into consideration. The provost said the scores could also be helpful for other purposes, such as placing students with low scores into the right classes so they can catch up to their peers. 

LSU’s decision to reinstate the testing requirements is in line with a national trend. 

President Donald Trump’s administration has pressured some universities to sign a “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” that, among other things, directs universities to require applicants to submit test scores. 

Trump’s compact includes a wide range of demands, many of which center on clamping down on diversity, equity and inclusion in higher education. 

LSU President Wade Rousse said the Trump administration was not a factor in adopting the policy. 

“This was an independent decision on our part to try to move towards an idea of being excellent and accessible,” Rousse said. “We think that’s one of the things that we need to do, is just to have the test scores as part of a comprehensive admittance process. And we feel no pressure.” 

After the U.S. Supreme Court struck down affirmative action in admissions in higher education in 2023, which effectively ended race-conscious admissions, higher education leaders looked for other ways to ensure diversity on campus. 

Former President Joe Biden’s administration stressed a need to continue holistic admissions practices. While race cannot be a determining factor, it can still be considered when brought up in a personal essay, for example.

Guidance the Biden administration put out also listed a policy of making test scores optional as a strategy for promoting diversity. 

Before Alexander’s changes in 2018, LSU’s policy was to reject applicants with ACT scores below its minimum, even if an applicant made up for their low score in other ways such as a high GPA. 

Holistic admission standards have been championed as a way to increase economic and racial diversity, as standardized testing has been criticized for maintaining racial inequities in higher education. 

Since adopting test-optional admissions, LSU has significantly increased the number of Black and Hispanic students it enrolls as well as those who rely on federal Pell Grants to pay their tuition.