I hope everyone is enjoying the last few weeks of the regular admissions season, and that your children are getting accepted to their top choices! I am looking forward to April, when the tables will turn and once again favor the accepted applicants, as all the colleges scramble to improve their yield rates. Besides the large % of increases in applications at many schools, often due to aggressive marketing campaigns by these schools, one of my biggest takeaways this year is that test optional schools are disingenuous about whether an applicant should submit scores. Clearly, their test scores for admitted students are inflated, since only applicants with scores above the median are typically submitting scores. Frankly, I do not believe their statements that an applicant will not be disadvantaged if scores are not submitted. Does anyone know of any data for test optional schools which show the acceptance rate for applicants who do not submit scores, as opposed to the acceptance rate for applicants who submit scores?
You are asking the wrong question.
In some cases, high scoring kids ALSO have high grades, top EC’s, great faculty recommendations, etc. So just focusing on the kids who don’t submit scores, obfuscates the actual data.
There are high scoring kids who for sure would be admitted even without submitting their scores based on the strength of the rest of their academic record.
You are trying to figure out if marginal students (or kids below the 50% mark in terms of grades, and weaker applications) are getting admitted without any consideration of the fact that they didn’t submit test scores.
I don’t think that analysis is possible. Strong students get admitted— all things being equal- at a MUCH higher rate than weak students. That’s just across the board- scores, no scores. The tests are just one more indication of a kids strength as a student.
The problem is that each school has their own unpublished rules, My useless advice would be to contact those schools ahead of time and ask the very question.
Collegedata.com had the below info (which you may have already read):
Why Some Colleges Become Test Optional
Test-optional colleges have decided that factors other than test scores are stronger predictors of a student’s potential to succeed in college. Admission staffs also know that test scores can be significantly improved through coaching, and that not all students have access to such help.
How Do These Schools Evaluate Applications?
Like almost all colleges, test-optional schools consider a student’s high school academic record to be most important. Other factors that may be critical include writing samples, personal interviews, letters of recommendation, and evidence of commitment to service or work outside of school.
How to Find Out Which Colleges Are Test Optional
Go to fairtest.org to see a list maintained by The National Center for Fair and Open Testing. You’ll see a number of well-known and selective colleges and universities on this list, such as Bates, Bowdoin, George Mason, and Mount Holyoke. In fact, entire university systems have gone test optional, such as the California State University and University of Texas systems.
Obviously there are many factors that are considered in the highly subjective application process. For example, many student-athletes are accepted to highly selective schools with lower than average test scores and grades, just as many student-athletes with higher than average test scores and grades are accepted. The original question that I posed regarding what % of students who submit sores are accepted, versus those who do not submit, is a fair question for test optional scores since they are claiming that students who do not submit will not be disadvantaged. It can easily be answered, since many test optional colleges already publish the % of students who submit scores as part of their application, versus those who do not. It is just another data point for applicants to consider.
The schools publish the % of who submits and who doesn’t, but does NOT allow you to know out of the pool, how many Physics Olympiad medalists, kids who attended RSI or a similarly competitive research program; first chair in youth symphony. Without understanding the profiles of the kids who submit vs. the kids who don’t, just knowing the statistical admit rate tells you nothing.
Disadvantaged does NOT mean that kids who do not submit scores automatically face the same admissions odds as kids who do. Colleges don’t claim that- and it would be ridiculous to claim. Why should a kid with a B- average in HS who doesn’t submit her scores expect the same admissions result as a kid with an A average?
When the test optional schools state that an applicant will not be disadvantaged, they mean that Admissions will not make a negative inference that the applicant had low test scores if they choose not to submit them, since they are not required to submit. As a lawyer, I suggest that a good analogy involves a judge’s instruction to a jury in a criminal case that the members of the jury should not draw a negative inference from the fact that a defendant does not take the stand in her or his defense, since the Fifth Amendment gives a criminal defendant the right not to take the stand in her or his defense. That said, I bet many a juror had some concern about the defendant’s failure to take stand without expressing it.
That is not what what test optional schools are saying but thanks for clarifying that you are a lawyer.
They are saying that all things being equal, a kid who does not submit scores is going to be evaluated on what IS there- recommendations, activities, leadership, rigor of curriculum, grades, in the same way that a kid who DOES submit grades is evaluated. They are NOT saying “don’t send us your scores” and in fact, many applicants do.
The reality- that many kids who do not submit their scores likely have different profiles from kids who do- is hard to ignore. I know kids who didn’t submit scores because they have LD’s which make taking tests difficult. Guess what- their GPA’s in HS reflect the fact that they aren’t strong test-takers because- y’know- they give tests in HS. Or kids with VERY lopsided transcripts- all A’s in English in History, C’s and B minuses in Chem and Math… and their SAT scores were similarly lopsided (780 in Verbal, 490 in Math).
You are assuming that there is a significant number of kids with strong test scores who do not submit their scores to test optional schools, and I can assure you that the number of kids who do that is very, very small.
You have imposed a meaning on “test optional” which is not what the colleges mean. They mean “optional”. We will read and evaluate what is here, not evaluate what is NOT here. But that makes what is there very, very important. A kid who has a low GPA or did not take a rigorous curriculum is not going to magically migrate to the top of the admit pile by virtue of NOT submitting scores. That GPA and the rigor are going to be even MORE important in the absence of standardized tests.
Every test optional school we visited said that, if a student’s test scores are not consistent with the rest of their academic portfolio, then they are a good candidate for applying test optional. On the other hand, if test scores are consistent with your portfolio, then submit.
My test optional kid who needed merit applied largely to test optional schools, and got 1/2 tuition awards at all of them, as well as at the few test-mandatory schools. The rest of his portfolio was very strong, most rigorous curriculum, strong gpa etc. depth in ECs. Nothing disingenuous about the communication or process – my kid’s scores were lopsided with his record, he had a strong portfolio without the scores, that is how he applied and was considered.