The public universities aren’t generally playing the same TO game being played by private universities, where they are discouraging submission of anything except ultra high scores. AO at BU specifically instructed not to submit anything below a 1430. (and I’ve heard some advice not to submit anything under a 1450).
That is indeed an entirely different discussion. And we might not even disagree. I can certainly see merit to the argument that there is very little gained from the standardized scores.
But regardless of whether the scores had value or not, certainly schools used the standardized tests to weed out applicants.
While pre-TO, that 1050 student would either never have applied, or would be quickly weeded out… Now that 1050 student gets the same consideration as the 1400 student who submitted TO.
Now, maybe less consideration of standardized tests is a good thing. Maybe it did overly-reward those with classes/tutors propping up their scores.
Personally, I don’t like this muddy halfway. Just go test blind if the test scores aren’t helpful.
Yes… the problem is that data is 2 years old, those applying in 2020-2021.
Pre-Covid, those numbers wouldn’t change rapidly year to year. But with 2 years of “only sunlit scores if you’re above the median,” the stats would change rapidly. (If 2020-2021 had 50% submitting scores, with a median range of 1400-1500… but then in 2021-2022, for the most part, only those over 1450 submitted… things will look very different).
Going test optional can be a risk as there is much more competition now for college admissions. If you go test optional, the essays have to be stellar.
I tend to think that submitting makes sense. It confirms that he is a strong student, which his GPA and rigor support… He’s not positioning himself as stellar, so that score isn’t going to bust his cover! Put differently, this hangs together.
And I seriously doubt that if he doesn’t get in that the score would be the reason.