SUBJECT: Updates: Test-Optional Admission Policy and ELPP

Dear Colleagues,

We hope everyone is having a relaxing and enjoyable summer. We wanted to share a couple of updates. 

Test-Optional Admission Policy:
The University of Michigan-Dearborn will continue with test-optional admissions, which means submitting SAT and ACT scores will remain optional for prospective First-Year students through at least 2026.

The pilot program, which began in 2020 amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, aims to remove barriers and provide additional access to higher education.  While it’s too early to evaluate the program, data from the first class indicates our students who choose test-optional are being successful.

This policy has strong campus support and aligns with our commitment to expand access and opportunity to neighboring school districts, underserved communities, as well as lessen the impact of societal barriers that do not align with our university mission. 

We will re-evaluate this policy in 2026 to assess retention and graduation rate trends of the first 2020 cohort and to ensure this policy is meeting the intended objective.

English Language Proficiency Program (ELPP):
In 2012, UM-Dearborn launched the English Language Proficiency Program (ELPP) to provide English language support to students who had been provisionally admitted to the university. 

Effective Fall 2022, based on a changing international landscape, our campus has made the decision to no longer offer this program. We continue to have a strong international pipeline with students who meet English Language Proficiency requirements, so this will not impact future enrollment.  If the landscape changes, we could revisit this decision at a later time, but at this time this decision allows us to realign university resources previously supporting the ELPP to other strategic uses.

Geri Pappas will now provide her extensive expertise in fully supporting the College of Education, Health, and Human Services, and will still support, along with other important areas in education, new English Language Proficiency efforts focusing more on regional gaps in the K-12 pipeline.

Natalie Kuhn, who supported the ELPP administration, will continue to offer her support and expertise in the Office of International Affairs (OIA), where they are greatly needed for the growing population of international students. 

We are grateful to both of them, and the many others over the years, who dedicated their time and effort to launching and leading the English Language Proficiency Program (ELPP).

These are just a couple of the initiatives in the works we wanted to highlight. However, we look forward in the Fall to providing even more details about the many other initiatives underway and the ongoing campus efforts around the development of the campus-wide strategic enrollment plan (SEM).

With all best wishes, we hope you enjoy the rest  of your summer.

Gabriella Scarlatta

Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs

Melissa Stone

Vice Provost Enrollment Management