April 24, 2026 — today — is the court-extended deadline for institutional members of six major higher education associations and six private nonprofit colleges to submit years of detailed admissions data to the U.S. Department of Education. The data, collected through a new survey called the Admissions and Consumer Transparency Supplement (ACTS), must be broken down by race, sex, standardized test scores, family income, and GPA, going back six academic years.

What the ACTS Survey Is

The Admissions and Consumer Transparency Supplement is a new federal data collection launched by the Department of Education under a directive from the Trump administration. The stated purpose: verify that colleges are complying with the Supreme Court's 2023 ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which struck down race-conscious admissions practices at universities receiving federal funding.1

The survey asks colleges to submit disaggregated admissions data for each "race-sex pairing" — meaning figures that show, for example, how many Black women applied, were admitted, and enrolled, along with their average test scores, GPA ranges, and family income levels. The data must cover the 2025-26 academic year and the five prior years, for a total of six academic years.

6 years — ACTS survey requires colleges to submit applicant data broken down by race and sex, covering 2025-26 and the five prior academic years.

A Deadline That Has Moved — Repeatedly

The Education Department originally opened the ACTS survey in mid-December 2025 with a March 18, 2026 deadline. That deadline passed without full compliance, partly because of court challenges and partly because many schools said the data collection was technically and logistically rushed.

A series of court orders and Education Department extensions have pushed the deadline multiple times. As of today, April 24, 2026, the current deadline applies to institutions whose higher education associations — six major groups — or the colleges themselves sought relief from the court while litigation continues.2

Public colleges in 17 states are operating under a separate court order that blocked the Department of Education from enforcing the deadline against them, after a federal judge concluded the rushed timeline likely violated the Administrative Procedure Act. Those schools are not required to submit today.

For current college applicants and students: this survey collects aggregate statistical data from institutions, not personal files from individual students. Your personal FAFSA data, test scores, or application materials are not being sent to the government as part of the ACTS survey.

Why Colleges Are Pushing Back

Beyond the logistical challenges, many colleges argue the survey was designed to catch schools that are quietly continuing to use race as an admissions factor in violation of the 2023 ruling — even if no explicit policy says so.

Higher education associations representing hundreds of institutions have sought court protection or deadline extensions, arguing the survey's rushed timeline violated standard federal rulemaking procedures. The 17-state lawsuit represents a broader coalition of public universities contesting the data demand on similar procedural grounds.2

Some institutions also object to the survey's methodology. The combination of race, sex, test scores, GPA, and income in a single disaggregated dataset — they argue — could be used to draw inferences about admissions decisions that the data alone can't support.

The legal battles are not over. Courts may yet issue broader injunctions or require the Education Department to go through a formal notice-and-comment rulemaking before enforcing the survey requirements.

What This Means for Future Applicants

If the ACTS survey stands and the data is published, it will be the most detailed public picture of who applies to and gets into American colleges that has ever existed. That's significant for students trying to understand where they actually have a chance.

Right now, most published college acceptance rates reflect total applicant pools without the kind of demographic and academic breakdown the ACTS survey would create. Students submitting test scores who want to understand how those scores interact with other factors at their target schools currently have very limited data.

Admissions transparency is also a factor in the broader shift away from test-optional policies. Schools that reinstated testing requirements in 2025 and 2026 are partly responding to pressure — legal and public — to show their admissions decisions are based on documented academic criteria.

Students applying to college in fall 2026 and beyond should watch for Common Data Set releases from their target schools. If ACTS data eventually becomes public, tools that let you filter admit rates by test score range and demographic group will become much more useful than the broad acceptance rates schools currently publish.

The Bigger Picture on Admissions Transparency

The ACTS survey is part of a broader post-2023 rethinking of what colleges must disclose about admissions. The Supreme Court ruling didn't just change what factors admissions offices can weigh — it created an enforcement question: how does anyone know whether a school is actually complying?

Collecting this data is the government's answer to that question. Whether the method is legally sound, logistically achievable, or analytically meaningful is a separate debate. But the direction is clear: more data about who gets in, and why, is coming.

For students, this is mostly good news. The more transparent admissions data becomes, the easier it is to build a realistic college list and understand where demonstrated interest and other factors actually move the needle.

If you're working through applications now, our college application tips guide covers what actually matters in the process — regardless of what the government collects about it.

What to Watch Next

  • Whether courts issue a broader preliminary injunction blocking the survey entirely
  • Whether the Education Department publishes the collected data and in what form
  • How the 17-state lawsuit resolves — a ruling there could set precedent for the entire program
  • Whether Congress addresses the data collection in upcoming higher education legislation

What is the ACTS survey? The Admissions and Consumer Transparency Supplement is a new federal data collection requiring colleges to submit detailed admissions statistics broken down by race, sex, test scores, GPA, and family income, covering 2025-26 and the five prior years.

Does this affect my college application? No. The survey collects aggregate institutional data, not individual student records. Your personal application, test scores, or financial information are not being sent to the government through this survey.

Why have the deadlines kept changing? Multiple higher education associations and a coalition of 17 states challenged the survey in court, arguing the Department of Education bypassed standard rulemaking. Courts have issued temporary blocks and extensions while litigation continues.

Footnotes

  1. Higher Ed Dive. (2026, April 24). Dozens of colleges get more time to submit race and sex admissions data. https://www.highereddive.com/news/dozens-colleges-more-time-submit-race-sex-admissions-data/817375/ ↩

  2. NPR. (2026, April 4). Judge halts Trump effort requiring colleges to show they don't consider race in admissions. https://www.npr.org/2026/04/04/nx-s1-5773915/judge-halts-trump-effort-college-admissions-race ↩ ↩2