Test Optional Colleges and Universities

Test Preparation
1

<p>I am interested in hearing from anybody who has experience with not submitting SAT and ACT scores to "test optional" or even "test flexible" schools.</p>

<p>Did you get accepted?
Did you get accepted to a college which you thought your SAT or ACT score made your admission unlikely?</p>

<p>I am especially interested in excellent schools such as Wake Forest University, Bates College, and University of Rochester. There are other outstanding colleges, but please do not tell me about, say, DeVry University or music conservatories or online programs. Those have their place, but I am interested in standard residential colleges and universities.</p>

<p>Let me know your experience. Thanks!</p>

2

<p>This is not the best forum for this question. Try college admissions maybe.</p>

3

<p>@NROTCgrad, if you look at the CDS for those schools you can see how many people didn’t submit scores. For instance, at Wake Forest at least 16% didn’'t submit. <a href=“Home - Office of Institutional Research”>Home - Office of Institutional Research; I think it may be higher because I don’t know how they handle those who submitted both. I would presume scores weren’t submitted because they were not good.</p>

4

<p>Thanks for the feedback. </p>

<p>I actually am looking less for data, but more to hear what people have to say about the process and how well it worked for them (or not). Personally, I am not planning to apply (being already a graduate) but I might be in a position to help someone else soon. Still, interesting to know that the CDS has such info. Since my question is here, I will leave it up.</p>

<p>Any schools with “test optional” are good to hear about.</p>

5

<p>I was going to link to the thread about essays at test optional schools but see you already found it.</p>

6

<p>Some schools have automatic admission criteria based just on GPA and/or rank:
<a href=“Updated list of schools with auto-admit (guaranteed admission) criteria - Applying to College - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1562918-updated-list-of-schools-with-auto-admit-guaranteed-admission-criteria-p1.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Even if such a school still requires the submission of SAT or ACT scores, a student who qualifies for automatic admission based just on GPA and/or rank need not stress over how well s/he does on the test.</p>

7

<p>The trick here is to match yourself without the scores. Not assume, if you have an off record, that lightning will strike just because you don’t submit. Both of mine got accepted w/o scores- but both were very solid matches- that’s a matter of a deep look at what the college values and offers and what the rest of your record shows you offer and your potential. Have to do the homework.</p>