Hello everyone! I was just wondering how selective colleges like Princeton and Harvard are going to uphold their new test optional policies. I don’t believe that not submitting scores won’t put the applicant at a disadvantage. How many students do you think are going to submit SAT scores? Is it even worth applying to these schools without an SAT score?
It’s actually far easier for selective colleges, since “holistic” admissions mean that they are using a long list of criteria to determine whether to accept an applicant. Removing one of them just makes it simpler.
They haven’t removed any criteria. If they removed testing as a criteria that would be test blind, and they chose not to do that, and chose instead to be test optional.
Every student who sends in a test score will have that be part of their holistic review. If it’s a strong score, that’s an advantage, an advantage that a TO applicant can’t get/earn. In a zero sum game (at the individual school level), not being able to get an advantage is a per se disadvantage, and other application components have to be relatively stronger to make up for the lost advantage of a strong test score.
A few years ago GT had their admissions folks review the applications and make decisions before looking at standardized test scores. After they made their recommendations/decisions they looked at the test scores. Their decisions did not change.
Actually, we don’t know. The entire admission system is opaque, and, except for a vague understanding of Harvard’s system because of the lawsuit, we only have our best guesses, which are just that - guesses.
Yes, you are correct, they didn’t remove testing as a criterion, they moved it from “very important” or “Important” to “considered”. For Princeton, for example, that would put it in the same category as an interview.
My totally unsupported guess is that, like subject tests, if there was a legitimate reason for a student not to have done the test, it will not be used to determine whether to accept the student, and that it will no longer be a major deciding factor in determining the “academic ranking” of a student, but a minor one.
Of course, AOs who have always used the test scores as a major factor in determining whether to accept as student, may simply be unable to stop using it the same way, and will only ignore it when they wish to accept a student who has a low score or who is lacking a test score.
The only thing that we do know for sure is that applications cannot be rejected offhand for not having a test score.
@MWolf and @Mwfan1921 so is it even worth applying to the Ivy League as a test optional applicant?
You are in the top 25%-50% by way of GPA, and in the bottom 25% for SAT.
According to your other posts, you have a strong GPA, and a decently rigorous course set and strong ECs. The fact that SATs are not as important may play in your favor, if they are treating test scores as truly optional. However, it is difficult to know just how much weight they will put on tests scores, and at how much a disadvantage a student would be if they do not submit a test score, or submit a test score which is in the bottom 25% of those of accepted students.
In any case, colleges which accept 10% or fewer of their applicants reject about 80% of the applicants who match the “average” student who attends these colleges.
So is it worth it? It’s hard to tell. Would you apply to Princeton if they were accepting 5% of the students with your profile? If they were accepting 10%? That means of course that they were rejecting 95% or 90% of these applicants.