Also important is to find out how many admitted and enrolled in ED rounds submitted scores. Since some schools fill up a significant portion in ED1 and ED2, I would think that many go TO for those rounds.
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That may be true. Is it too much of a stretch to think that, possibly, having a high score in ED is more of a plus than in RD?
Thatās insane. I would have a very hard time believing anything else that person said about admissions. I would love to hear from anyone at CC who agrees with that statement as to the reasoning.
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I would think so. High scorers in RD rounds may be rejected to protect yield.
The way admissions are these days, some target schools are only targets in ED round. The same school would be a reach in RD.
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I think itās because thereās a person in her class who got a 1600 so that was their rationale in case they applied to the same schools.
It didnt matter because we werenāt going that route anyways.
Im sure there are private counselors telling kids the same thing.
My two cents is if you dig into the history of 25-50-75 numbers for actual first-years at highly-selective schools, you can see how mostly what used to be a 50ish score might now be more like a 25ish score, 50s are now somewhat higher, and 75s are mostly the same or like a small notch higher. This is exactly what we should expect as test-optional stabilizes as the new normal.
To me, this in no way implies the standards for a good test score have actually changed, it just reflects that more and more applicants are only submitting helpful scores. But all these students were admitted, so I think this largely just means scores can be helpful well below the median, since largely only helpful scores are being submitted.
As a practical rule of thumb, I suggest the following. Dig up a CDS for a school of interest from right before they went test optional (if that happened recently). If a score would have been a 50+ score for that class, donāt worry about submitting it today. If a score would have been 25-49 back then, assess honestly whether your grades/transcript (in light of your HS reputation) is high enough on its own to make you a 50+ academic applicant. If not, still submit the score.
You can and should vary this as you see fit, but I think something like this is a better approaching to identifying what helpful scores would mean for you than just looking at people who only submitted scores they thought were helpful (and it worked).
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Mine would be thrilled with a 1200 
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there are caveats to everything thoughā¦.
Itās just not true that the competitiveness of college admissions has remain essentially unchanged since the pandemic (when TO really took over).
For example, for ED schools, the percent of the class admitted ED1 and ED2 has exploded.
There was a long article in NYMag about schools that used to (year after year) send large numbers to BU prior to 2020 now canāt get anywhere near the same number in. It was a very interesting article with lots of guidance counselors from top city high schools interviewed. The number of their kids going to Ivies was unchanged. But the competitiveness of schools like BU, BC and that tier has gotten much much tougher. The RD round is crazy tough.
That suggests (but who really knows) that the old SAT ranges may not be relevant anymore.
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Interesting middle 50 percentiles for BU:
enrolled class of 2024 (last year of test optional), 70% reporting SAT (1340-1460), 33% ACT (30-34)
enrolled class of 2025, 32% reporting SAT (1390-1490), 13% ACT (31-34)
enrolled class of 2026, 23% reporting SAT (1370-1430), 12% ACT (31-34)
Maybe BU is an anomaly? Letās seeā¦ how about Northeastern (setting aside the large chunk not included in Northeasternās reported stats)
enrolled class of 2024 (last year of test optional), 54% reporting SAT (1430-1540), 31% ACT (33-35)
enrolled class of 2025, 28% reporting SAT (1440-1530), 14%ACT (33-35)
enrolled class of 2026, 33% reporting SAT (1450-1535), 11% ACT (33-35)
And to round out the examples, Tufts
enrolled class of 2024 (last year of test optional), 59% reporting SAT (1400-1510), 41% ACT (32-35)
enrolled class of 2025, 31% reporting SAT (1450-1530), 23% ACT (33-35)
enrolled class of 2026, 37% reporting SAT (1460-1540), 19% ACT (33-35)
BC is a little tougher to compare since they published a factbook rather than a CDS for college class of 2024
Looks to me like BU and Northeastern are taking tons TO, perhaps in an effort to shore up yield(?).
(Sorry I had to make some edits above)
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It was also mentioned way up-thread months ago that a Northeastern rep at an info session suggested applicants to not submit scores below the 75th percentile. If true, thatās ridiculous and the skeptic in me sees that as an attempt to boost the range of reported scores.
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Thatās the reputation Northeastern has at our school. If you want to go there: apply TO and ED. RD? You have no chance. They are all about keeping scores and yield high.
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And on their CDS data, Test scores are marked as āImportantā. Dont know what to believe.
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Doesnt that also apply to Tufts and BU?
I still dont understand the point of yield protection. Does that help their USNWR rankings?
I think if your test scores are 75th or higher, they help with acceptance.
DS2022 was possibly the only student accepted to NEU Boston in EA (not ED) from our suburb high school. He submitted his 36 ACT superscore.
Others accepted applied ED.
Non-ED accepted were into their NUin/Bound study abroad program for Fall/freshman year.
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My personal view: Donāt believe what they check as important/considered etc. In wake of Sup Ct decision, they want everything to be as vague and holistic as possible. Example: Harvard (SUED) claims no factor is āvery importantā or even āimportant!ā Everything is merely āconsidered.ā
They want to be the MIT of Boston.
Similar at our school. Regardless of what the CDS data say, Northeastern, alone, carries this reputation.
They want super high scores and kids committed ED.
re: yield. Itās not just about rankings. It also helps them plan their class. Northeastern gets tons of applications because they have no supplemental essays! This is strategic bc lots of kids just add them on last minute. They know they will yield very few of these kids. Hence, you must must apply ED if you dream of going there.
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Over the past three years I donāt think anyone in our local school districts that was unhooked got into NEU Boston in EA. Only ED1 or 2.
So Iām not sure scores really matter all that much to them - they want commitment.