Daughter received a generous financial aid package from her LAC even though she did not submit scores.
Heard directly from a DOA at a test optional school:
“You won’t be hurt by not submitting scores, but if you do we have to consider them.”
IOW, even though [this particular school] is test optional, we recommend that you not submit scores if they’re sub-par. This is a school that asks kids to submit the scores later for reporting purposes but which takes being test-optional seriously. @Dancer41 , feel free to PM me for the name of the particular school.
This is a very interesting discussion and one I’ve thought about a lot (similar situation to OP). To me it’s not so straightforward.
The advice to only submit test scores if above the published average has wonky implications. Assume that all applicants take that advice:
- Some applicants that have test scores above the actual average of all enrolled students but below the average of enrolled students that reported their test scores will withhold them, even though those scores could put them well into the top half of all current students at the school.
Example: A college says their reported average ACT score is 31, with a middle 50% of 30-32. HOWEVER behind the scenes perhaps only half of current students comprise that cohort. Perhaps the lower half averaged 27 and the upper half averaged 31, for a total school average of 29. Using the standard advice a kid with a 30 withholds that score even though s/he is above average for the college.
- Every year the average will rise and the proportion of applicants submitting scores will decline. Don't have time right now to prove this but I think it's true.
My questions always revolved around (a) the example in #1 above - i.e. do you submit if just below published average and (b) do you submit if you’re above the school’s average BUT that score is still one of your weakest cards to play (like the situation OP describes).
Good topic, thanks for posting!
Oh and on Connecticut College, someone close to me is enrolling this Fall and received material merit aid. I’d rather not share the details of the situation but I can confirm it’s true.
@Saint68, According to Connecticut College’s Common Data Set (lines H2g and H2n) they do not award ANY non need-based aid. Your friend or relative may have received an outside award or unexpected FA, but it wasn’t a merit award from Conn College.
One of the schools DS considered was switching from test required to test optonal. When they met with the CC team at the school, they reported that this caused the average SAT scores to increase by 100 (?) points, as is typical when this change is made. Based on that, it sounds like those schools do not include the scores of the students who chose not to provide them, doesn’t it? I too am confused by which numbers are included in which reporting.
Thanks everyone for all of the responses - this has been helpful and I’ve learned a lot. I do remember my daughter’s GC in an initial meeting mentioning that with test optional schools you have to make sure you know if you are looking at the average of all, or all who submitted. At least I understand now from all of the responses that it can be tricky.Hopefully what colleges say is true that if you don’t submit, they don’t hold it against you. I had visions of admissions sitting around trying to figure out what bad score the student got that they didn’t want to report and hoping it’s not worse than what she actually got! I think we’ll see what her counselor says in the fall and reach out to some of the schools about requirements for merit consideration. She’s lucky that all but 3 schools on her list are test optional. It’s the others we will really need to worry about!!!
“Daughter received a generous financial aid package from her LAC even though she did not submit scores.”
The relatively small school where my youngest ended up also offered her a very good merit based aid without our sending scores. Her school says that they won’t even look at scores if you send them. In her case her SAT was pretty much at the same level as her GPA so it didn’t matter which they were going to look at (we sent scores to the other schools where she applied and she got similar amounts of aid from each).
There are a lot of LACs, and their policies seem to vary.
Re post #25,
I can’t vouch for all schools but there is evidence that Bates, one of the first test-optional schools is gathering data on non-submitters and including their scores on the Common Data Set. If you look at the average scores of incoming students who submitted scores the middle 50% is substantially higher than the 50% reported on the CDS. For instance the middle 50% of ACT scores is 30-32 among submittters but only 28-32 among all incoming students as reported on the CDS. The CDS numbers are what USNews and other companies report so they include kids with weak scores. I understand that the school submits all scores because USNWR’s methodology includes a large penalty for schools that don’t submit over a certain percentage of scores.
The upshot is that a school like this may look like it has weaker applicants than it does in reality, particularly if people are assuming the CDS numbers are for submitters only.
http://www.bates.edu/research/files/2010/03/cds1516.pdf#page7
http://www.bates.edu/admission/optional-testing/
@Sue22 Any chance Conn has changed this policy going forward? I do know that everyone involved was very surprised by the financial package because, “I thought Connecticut College doesn’t give merit aid”…
I could be wrong, but this was my understanding. Thanks for the note. 
@Saint68, Nothing’s impossible!
I should correct myself because apparently there is a merit scholarship available to Conn College student but it"s only for students from New London and comes from a combo of federal, state and CC grants.it’s likely it wasn’t awarded to any CC students last year, thus the CDS info.
Wondering if you guys can help us decide on whether or not to send in scores for Wake Forest and Wesleyan (CT), which are test optional. SAT 1480 and ACT 32 (but just retook and I think will go up to 34…long story). GPA is weighted 4.3 and UW 3.6 (goes to a crazy rigorous private school). SAT subject tests all 740 give or take. S has very good ECs, so not worried about that part. I’m just thinking that the test scores might actually help him b/c of his UW GPA. Mid 50% high is WFU ~1440/32 and Wesleyan 1480/33, so S would be right at the top of the mid 50% range. I have no idea how this would affect his app.
@contdes , I would think those scores would help the application and wouldn’t hesitate to include them.
Often, when the schools are giving guidance, they say “if you feel your scores do not accurately reflect your ability, do not submit them.” These seem in line with those of a good student.
@Dancer41 - I see that American is on your DD’s list. AU’s middle SAT range is 1210 (25%)—1370 (75%) and the ACT is 27 (25%)—31(75%). I went to their honors programs seminar and they were very clear that test-optional does not punish you on merit. It is in their 3rd tier as considered. In fact you can apply to their highest full scholarship (Fredrick Douglas) and their Honor’s program test optional. For what it’s worth ED greatly increases acceptance possibilities at AU - it’s 85% vs. 29%. This of course is not a good option if you are not 100% sure AU is your school or if you want to compare merit.
@gardenstategal Thanks. The scores do reflect S’s abilities and I think are better than his UW GPA, so looks like it’s a go. He’s also got mid-700s for subject tests, so perhaps we will also send those.
Do send those, @contdes!