Dive Summary:

• Wake Forest University, New York University, Middlebury College and Bowdoin College are among over 800 colleges and universities that are now "test-optional" institutions.
• Many of the test-optional schools exempt prospective students from the exam if they meet GPA or class-rank criteria, and nearly 150 of the schools rank in the "top-tier" of their academic categories.
• Most teens applying for college are still taking the exams, however, and the Louisiana Department of Education now requires all high school juniors to take the ACT--which was more popular than the SAT among test-takers this year.

From the article:

A growing number of colleges are stepping away from the standardized exams traditionally required of admissions applicants. More than 800 colleges and universities across the country no longer mandate score submissions from SAT or ACT college admissions exams, according to the latest survey by the National Center for Fair & Open Testing, otherwise known as FairTest and a longtime critic of the SAT. ...