Given that there are finite spots available, it seems to me that if a high SSAT benefits an applicant, a student with either lower scores or no submitted score would be disadvantaged. It’s a zero-sum game unless the schools increase the sizes of their classes, which is unlikely. Whenever someone gets in, there’s one less space available for another applicant.
If I were an AO, I would assume that anyone who could have taken the SSAT but did not submit one was less desirable than someone in the same area/school who did submit results (everything else equal), even if the submitted results were a little below average for the school.
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