At CBN, we’re always on the lookout for information that can help you better sort through the college application process, and for many of you, that means dealing with your SAT and ACT scores. FairTest, the National Center for Fair & Open Testing, is one place to head to for information, even before taking your college entrance exams.

One of the things the organization does is keep track of colleges with “test optional” policies. More than 840 accredited, bachelor-degree granting institutions do not require all or many applicants to submit test scores for admissions, according to FairTest.

Bob Schaeffer, Public Education Director for FairTest, says: “You don’t have to take any test at all if you apply to test-optional colleges.” FairTest has identified these schools that this year made it optional to include the SAT and ACT scores for admission.

• St. Michael’s College

• St. Anselm College

• Southern New Hampshire University

• Marist College

• Manhattanville College

• Colorado College (“Flexible Testing” policy)

• American University (for all who apply by Nov. 1)

• Wagner College

See if the schools you’re considered are on the list.

Schools with “Test Optional” admissions policies also are in the top tier of U.S. News & World Report’s list of best national liberal arts colleges released earlier in August. Those schools include:

• Middlebury College* (Ranked 4)

• Bowdoin College (Ranked 6)

• Smith College (Ranked 14)

• Hamilton College* (Ranked 18)

• Bates College (Ranked 21)

• Colby College (Ranked 23)

• Colorado College* (Ranked 23)

• Mount Holyoke College (Ranked 26)

• Bryn Mawr* (Ranked 30)

*Test flexible policy

Let us know if you have applied to a test-optional school or if any of them are on the list of schools you’re applying to this year.

–Lori Johnston