This Week in GRE & Grad Admissions: Testing Consolidation, Mandatory Scores, and the Shrinking International Pool

Three things worth knowing this week if you're studying for the GRE or applying to grad school.

1. ACT's First Score Release Under ETS — and the Outages That Led to the Takeover

October 6 marked the first ACT national score release (from the September 19 test) since ETS took ownership of ACT on July 1. Worth knowing why ETS bought ACT in the first place: it followed two embarrassing technical failures in about 13 months — a server malfunction in April 2025 that disrupted testing for roughly 11,000 Illinois students on a state graduation-requirement day, and a nationwide rescoring mess in May 2026 after ACT's score-equating process failed across spring school-day administrations. Separately, Pearson just bought assessment-tech provider ITS (Sept 18), adding remote proctoring and continuous-certification tools to its own testing business. Translation: the handful of companies running admissions testing is consolidating fast, and reliability — not just content — is becoming part of the pitch.

If you've had a glitchy test-day experience (power outage, late start, score delay), this is a good thread to compare notes on.

Sources: ACT Scores Due Oct 6 as ETS Takes Control and Pearson Buys ITS — ts2.tech | ETS Bought ACT After Two Major Testing-System Failures — Higher Ed Insights



2. Standardized Testing Is Basically Mandatory Again at the Top — and Grad Programs Are Following

The test-optional era keeps unwinding: Yale ended its test-flexible policy back in May, Columbia is returning to required testing for the 2027-28 cycle (following Princeton), and six of the eight Ivy League schools now require a score this cycle. That's mostly about undergrad admissions, but it's the same cultural pendulum swing that's been pulling grad programs back toward requiring the GRE for competitive STEM, business, and PhD tracks — the "GRE is making a comeback" story we flagged a few weeks ago isn't a one-off, it's part of a bigger reversal across all of selective admissions. If your target programs went test-optional in 2021-2022, it's worth double-checking their current policy before you decide to skip the GRE — plenty have quietly reversed course.

Source: ETS Bought ACT After Two Major Testing-System Failures — Higher Ed Insights



3. International Grad Applications Are Down — CGS Confirms It's Not Just Undergrad

The Council of Graduate Schools' annual international flash survey confirms what a lot of people here have been sensing anecdotally: applications from prospective international students for Fall 2026 declined versus Fall 2025 at both the doctoral and master's levels, and fewer offers of admission went out too — CGS says the trend tracks with IIE and NAFSA data and warns it "puts U.S. innovation at risk." For context on scale, broader Common App/DHS numbers show international applications down roughly 10% (about 16,000 fewer applicants) and enrollment down around 13% system-wide this cycle, mostly tied to visa uncertainty under current immigration policy.

If you're applying from outside the US this cycle, how is this shaping your school list — more non-US programs, backup plans, or pushing ahead with the same targets? Curious how people here are adjusting.

Sources: 2026 Status of International Graduate Students in the United States — CGS | Applications From International Students Down 10% — Inside Higher Ed