Is "Test Optional" Really Test Optional?
Elton Lin
It’s been over a year since the University of California veered towards eliminating all test requirements by 2025. Colleges across the nation, and most notably the Ivy League, declared that college applications would be test-optional this year. Some colleges have maintained that their test-optional policies are temporary, while others, such as Scripps, have declared their applications test-optional permanently. They join the ranks of schools, such as the University of Chicago, that have been test-optional for years, even before the pandemic hit.
As we surmised last year, if a college states that their application is test-optional, then students have the choice to submit their standardized test scores to the college or not. If the student submits the test score, the college will consider it as it has in the past. If the student refrains from submitting, then the college will simply evaluate the student’s application without the test information. Some colleges have slightly different variations of this. The “test optional if” approach, for example, offers the test-optional option only to applicants with other indications of high academic achievement, but the general function behind these test-optional policies remains the same.
With such a drastic change to the college application landscape, it’s no wonder that people still have many questions about what “test-optional” really means for college hopefuls. Are admissions rates different between students who submit test scores and students who don’t? Do students actually put themselves at a disadvantage if they choose not to submit their test scores? Is test optional really test optional?
First, let’s look at some test-optional admissions data from this past year.
As expected, the proportion of submitted test scores in college applications dropped substantially. The 2019-2020 application cycle, prior to the surge of test-optional policies, about 77% of applicants using the Common Application submitted test scores to colleges. This application season (2020-2021), through February 15th of this year, the proportion of submitted test scores fell to 44%.
The Common Application also saw a massive increase in the number of total applications, receiving nearly 6 million first-year college applications—a whopping 11% increase from the year before.
Similarly, for many schools, especially Ivy League institutions, the number of applications rose and admit rates plummeted. Harvard, for example, received 57,435 applications for its Class of 2025—a huge spike after the 40,248 applications it received the year before—and its admit rate dropped accordingly, from 5% to an even slimmer 3.4%. The pattern is mirrored in Yale: last year, Yale admitted 6.5% of its 35,220 applicants. This admissions cycle, Yale only accepted 4.6% of its enlarged applicant pool of 46,905 -- the greatest number of applicants the institution has ever received.
The few elite colleges that have been transparent about current admit statistics between students who submitted test scores and students who didn't, indicate that a higher proportion of test score submitters were admitted. The University of Pennsylvania, for example, admitted 15% of its Early Decision applicant pool, and within that admitted 15% of ED applicants, 76% of them submitted test scores with their applications.
Highly selective schools had a much greater proportion of applications with submitted test scores than schools with historically much less selective admissions processes.
Certain demographics of students were less likely to submit test scores than others, such as first-generation college applicants, students who had received application fee waivers, and underrepresented minority (URM) applicants.
At first glance, one conclusion might seem clear: that submitting a test score will up an applicant's chances of college admittance. However, this conclusion is a misinterpretation of the data.
There is an undeniable correlation between test score submissions and admit rates, but this does not imply causation. In other words, test score submissions may be associated with a higher admit rate, but this does not mean that submitting a test score will make it more likely for an applicant to be accepted. College applications are complex and multifaceted things, especially with college admissions boards' holistic approach to evaluating applicants. To claim that submitting a test score will boost an applicant's chances of getting accepted is to claim that the test score is an isolated facet of the college application—but this is false.
If you think about the factors at play in a high test score, you’re likely to see students with good study habits, test-taking aptitude, access to study resources and practice tests, and an excellent understanding of school material. Students who have any of these aspects likely already show academic success, and then, in turn, have an overwhelming tendency to then perform well in standardized tests, such as the SAT and ACT. High achieving students are likely to be high achievers in multiple aspects, including, but not limited to, standardized testing. Remove the test score, and this academic success will still thoroughly reveal itself in every other aspect of a college application.
Despite many schools going test-optional for this past application cycle, many students nonetheless submitted test scores. Which students are more likely to have submitted scores? The students who performed well on the test. It's highly likely that these test score-submitting students excelled in other fields as well, both in and out of the classroom, and their applications likely reflect that success.
So how exactly do colleges consider applications with test scores versus applications without?
Colleges don’t necessarily view them any differently.
When colleges receive applications with a test score, they evaluate the applicant based on their test score, GPA, extracurriculars, achievements, essays, character, teacher recommendations—the works. When colleges receive applications without a test score, they evaluate the applicant based on exactly the same list of things, just without the test score.
In other words, even without a test score, there is a myriad of application material for college admissions boards to use in their evaluation of every applicant. Colleges don’t go out of their way to create higher or lower ratios of applicants based on whether or not the students submitted test scores or not, and admissions offices don’t automatically give extra points to an application because of a submitted test score. When you analyze admissions rates of students who take tests and those do not, keep in mind that high achievers who test well would look good whether they submitted the test results or not.
What should college applicants take away from this?
Students should focus on strengthening all the other parts of their applications that aren’t optional.
All the discourse surrounding admit rates and percentages can be incredibly misleading. Admissions is not a lottery nor a matter of probability—it is an evaluation, test or no test. Brown University had a 5.4% admit rate this year, for example, but this does not mean that students had a 5.4% chance to get into Brown. Rather, it means that Brown evaluated its applicant pool and deemed 5.4% of its applicants to be a good fit for their campus. Brown did not roll the dice with each applicant—its college admissions board assessed each applicant based on the many application materials they submitted, test score or no test score. The college admissions process remains ultimately evaluative.
Does this mean test-optional changes nothing about the college application process? No—as we mentioned before, this move of institutions towards test-optional (and even, in the more extreme, test-blind) policies has changed the academic landscape drastically. However, students should not take test-optional policies as a sign to fixate even further on standardized testing’s influence on their college applications. Instead, students will benefit much more from turning their efforts towards the myriad other facets of their college applications.
Of course, working on everything except test scores may seem counterintuitive for students and it might be unclear where to start. Feel free to request a free consultation and one of our consultants can help you get some ideas on what your first step should be.