Many students care deeply about the environment and sustainability and want to incorporate their passion about the Earth into their college experience. But how to choose a college that best facilitates that?

Colleges' commitment to climate action manifests in a variety of ways. Many colleges focus on implementing sustainability on campus, so students can rest assured that not only is their day-to-day life at the institution they attend eco-friendly, but also that their college is upholding a commitment to care for the environment alongside the students. Some colleges prioritize funding environmental research. Colleges tackle this from different angles, including politics, economics, engineering, ecology, earth science, and more. The research a college conducts is important for prospective undergraduates to consider because they will get to learn directly from the faculty responsible for such meaningful work and may even have the opportunity to contribute to the research themselves. Finally, although most colleges offer some course of study related to the environment, certain colleges go above and beyond, whether that be through the breadth of courses and educational resources focused on sustainability, the strength and rigor of one particular program, or the number of majors beyond environmental science that relate to climate action.

From a multitude of sources with differing perspectives and priorities, we've comprised a list of the 30 best colleges for climate action. Continue reading to learn more about each.

As we entered 2020, roughly one-third of the schools in our coverage universe offered some form of test-optional admissions. That figure cleared 70 percent in June and is now hovering at 90 percent with the holdouts largely in the South, particularly the public universities in Flordia and Georgia.

To help you keep up with the changes, we're actively tracking test-optional policies for several popular institutions we cover. As always, the definition of "test-optional" varies by institution and often has strings attached so pay close attention to the details.

Click on Continue Reading to see our list of test-optional schools and the type of test-optional policy they employ.  For your convenience, we've included admit rates, test score ranges and links to each school's standardized test policy to help you find suitable candidates for your college list.

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