Policies & Requirements

Configure score policies that define which tests are accepted and set program-specific score requirements.

Score Policies

A score policy defines which standardized tests your institution accepts and under what conditions. Policies are used during admissions evaluation to determine whether an applicant meets testing requirements.

Creating a Score Policy

1. Navigate to Academic > Score Policies
2. Click Add Policy
3. Complete the form:

Field	Description	Required
Name	Policy name (e.g., "Undergraduate Admissions")	Yes
Description	Explanation of the policy	No
Accepted Tests	Which test types satisfy this policy	Yes
Superscore Enabled	Whether to use superscoring for this policy	Yes
Is Active	Whether this policy is currently in effect	Yes

Accepted Tests

Each policy specifies which test types are accepted. For example, an undergraduate admissions policy might accept:

• SAT
• ACT
• CLT

A graduate admissions policy might accept:

• GRE
• GMAT

An English proficiency policy might accept:

• TOEFL iBT
• IELTS
• Duolingo English Test

Superscoring Configuration

When superscoring is enabled for a policy, the system automatically calculates the best possible composite score from a student's multiple test sittings.

How superscoring works:

1. The system retrieves all verified scores for the student for a given test type
2. For each section, the highest score across all sittings is selected
3. The superscore composite is calculated from these best section scores

TIP

Superscoring only applies within a single test type. The system does not combine SAT and ACT scores together.

When to enable superscoring:

• When your institution wants to evaluate applicants on their best performance across multiple attempts
• Common for SAT and ACT in undergraduate admissions

When to disable superscoring:

• When your institution requires scores from a single sitting
• Common for professional certifications or graduate-level tests

Program Requirements

Not available

Per-programme score requirements ("this programme requires SAT 1200") were removed in August 2026. The endpoints behind them read and wrote a table that exists in no schema, so they failed on every call, and no screen was ever built to reach them.

What does exist is the institution-wide score policy above: which tests are accepted, how long scores remain valid, and whether superscoring applies. A minimum score can also be required for graduation as an institutional requirement -- see below -- scoped by catalog year and degree level rather than by programme.

Minimum test score as an institutional requirement

Since migration 276 a minimum score can be made a degree requirement. In Admin > Academic Policies (ADMIN.ACADEMIC_POLICIES), add a rule DEGREE.TEST_SCORE_MIN, choose the test and enter the minimum composite score. Like every academic policy rule it can apply to every catalog year or one, and to every degree level or one. Several tests can be required at the same scope -- one rule per test -- and nothing is seeded: which test and which score is the institution's decision.

The degree audit then shows the requirement on the student's Institutional & Degree Requirements tab:

The student has	The requirement reads
An official score at or above the minimum	Met, with the score and test date
An official score below the minimum	Not met, with the score
No official score for that test	Not met, reason no test score (not "not applicable": the requirement applies; the student has not met it)

Which score counts follows the test's score policy: MOST_RECENT takes the latest official sitting; any other selection method takes the highest composite. Superscores are not computed for this check, because a recombined section total cannot be compared honestly with a composite threshold. Only official scores count -- the nightly import marks every score it loads from Colleague official, and a self-reported score is a claim, not a result.

What the system does with scores

Apart from the institutional requirement above, there is no automatic evaluation against programme thresholds. That depended on two things that are gone: the per-programme requirements described above, and the admissions review screens, which moved to a separate system in August 2026.

What remains is the record and the arithmetic:

1. Scores are captured per person and verified — see Test Scores
2. Only Verified or Official scores count; unverified and rejected ones are excluded
3. Where superscoring is enabled, the superscore is calculated across sittings and is available from /api/v1/people/persons/{personID}/superscore/{testTypeID}
4. Judging whether a score is good enough is made by a person, in whatever system now handles admissions

Scores themselves remain visible on the student record, under the Test Scores tab.

Best Practices

• Review policies annually - Test scoring scales and institutional priorities change; update policies each admissions cycle
• Use section minimums sparingly - Overly restrictive section requirements may reduce the applicant pool without improving outcomes
• Enable superscoring for undergraduate admissions if your institution's enrollment goals support it
• Keep test types current - Deactivate test types that are no longer accepted rather than deleting them
• Communicate requirements clearly - Ensure published admissions materials match the requirements configured in the system