University Select’s Guide to

Test Optional College Admissions

in the time of COVID19

1.  What is Test Optional?

A test optional application means you can choose to submit – or not to submit – your scores, with some restrictions.

Colleges that are Test Optional let students decide whether to submit ACT/ACT scores with their application. Notably, these colleges still accept SAT/ACT scores, but they only consider them if submitted.

It is crucial to note that most test optional schools set conditions on test optional applications. They may

• only allow those who have a certain GPA/class rank to apply as test-optional, 

• also require those who do not submit scores to take placement exams,

• still require ACT/SAT scores for out-of-state and international students[1] and for certain majors, and

• still require ACT/SAT for all or top Merit Scholarships,

•  or may be test-flexible, meaning students can submit AP, SAT Subject Test, International Baccalaureate (IB), or others in place of SAT/ACT Scores. 

2.  What Schools Are Currently Test Optional for 2020-2021?

Far more than usual.

HERE is an updated list of those schools that are test optional. As of April 22, 2020, 1154 colleges, or 41% of accredited 4-year colleges now have some form of flexibility regarding SAT/ACT scores for those applying for the 2020-2021 school year.[2] Notably – the range of schools now includes a greater number of elite institutions, such as Cornell, Middlebury, and the University of Chicago. 

In a bid to better understand the current test optional field, University Select compiled the following breakdown from publicly available databases. For the 2020-2021 school year 

• 765 or 27% colleges are completely test optional, no restrictions.

• 22 require SAT/ACT scores only for out-of-state applicants

• 202 only allow test optional if an applicant meets a certain GPA or Class Rank; 

• 46 schools require you to take their placement test if you do not submit SAT/ACT scores; 

• 68 colleges require SAT/ACT for some programs; 

• 3 are test flexible, including NYU (you can submit other tests, such as SAT Subject Test, Advanced Placement, or International Baccalaureate (IB)in lieu of SAT/ACT).  

3.  How many schools are temporarily test optional and how many are making the move permanent?

It’s too soon to tell! We are getting updates every day from colleges regarding test requirements. While a few colleges are permanently going test optional – most are going test optional for 1-3 years and will decide after this trial period whether to remain so. 

Every day, colleges are announcing new testing requirements for next year’s class and beyond– meaning even reliable information sources can quickly become outdated. 

While some state schools, such as University of Florida and Florida State, as well as Ivy-League schools, such a Harvard and Yale still require SAT/ACT scores, all institutions are evaluating COVID19’s impact and the situation remains fluid. HERE is a list of those colleges currently suspending ACT/SAT score requirements for 2020. Other schools, such as Cornell University and California’s public universities, are currently test optional just for the class of 2021. Others still are piloting up to 3 years test optional and a handful, such as those in Washington State, have decided to remain test optional.[3]

Again, the duration over which any institution remains test optional is fluid! This sentiment is best capsulated by Cornell’s admissions office: 

Future Cornell testing requirements

This emergency guidance for applicants during 2020 does not intend to suggest conviction at Cornell that examination results can’t help us to evaluate candidates and predict their college success in the future. We will evaluate our experience during the upcoming reading cycle and review our policies and options then. For now, this is a one-year relief for students who had been assembling a distinguished record of achievement until the COVID-19 disruption started in their country, region, or school, and who continue to seek the higher education opportunities toward which their efforts had been directed.[4]

In other words, we only know that some colleges are making short-term changes in light of COVID19. 

4.  What about Merit Scholarships?[5]

Widespread data is missing.

There appears to be mixed responses to merit scholarships. At some test optional schools, all merit scholarship requires SAT/ACT scores, while other reserve the top scholarships to those who submit scores. 

In the event that an institution delineates that SAT/ACT Scores are not required – the process for how institutions weight the applications for those with and without scores is unclear. Some argue that “it is fair to state that not submitting standardized test data may put you at a disadvantage for at least some merit-based scholarships”.  Whether and the extent to which test scores matter for merit scholarships varies from institution to institution and perhaps even from student to student. Do your homework, and perhaps err on the side of submitting scores, unless – as is outlined below – your scores are simply not commensurate with your GPA and other academic performance indicators. 

5.  Beyond COVID-19, Why are Colleges Going Test Optional?

They are discriminatory, a poor predictor of college performance, and unfairly advantage those who can afford test prep.

Proponents of Test Optional admissions argue that standardized tests are discriminatory, a poor predictor of college performance, and that they unfairly advantage those who can afford test prep. More specifically: 

(1)   the organization and substance of the ACT/SAT, and standardized tests in general, privileges higher income, white male students, over female and persons of color, and, as such these test are inherently discriminatory[6],

(2)   ACT/SAT tests do not predict a student’s performance in college, and 

(3)   if a SAT/ACT scores can be improved significantly by test preparation – then those who cannot afford it are at an unfair advantage.[7] 

6.  To Date - Who Has Benefitted from Schools going Test Optional?

Schools that go test-optional! Possibly, wealthy students who have poor test scores.

Yet, while these are essential considerations supported by a growing body of evidence (and it is one of University Select’s primary aims to ameliorate the inequalities of structure and access in test prep), it is not entirely clear that test optional admissions itself broadens access and fosters a more diverse student body. In fact, there is a growing sense that the winners of the test optional admissions movement are the test optional schools themselves, and, possibly, wealthy students who have poor test scores.

The clearest winners of the test-optional movement are the colleges themselves: (1) with the low-scoring applicants not submitting their scores – the average academic profile of a freshman class will likely be higher and (2) with more students applying to test optional schools – the percentage of accepted applicants decrease.[8] As one professor notes, “two measures of selectivity [average test scores & % of accepted applicants] – heavily weighted in many college rating schemes – have been increased, an indirect (or intended?) consequence of going test-optional”. In other words - by going test optional, schools get higher average test scores for their incoming class and a lower acceptance rate - both essential metrics for college rankings.

For students – it gets a bit murky. On one hand, a 2018 widely publicized study examined 28 liberal arts colleges, who had elected to go test optional. The take-aways were the following:

• These institutions saw gains in the numbers of black and Latino students applying and being admitted to their institutions.

• Students who didn't submit scores were slightly less likely to be admitted to the colleges to which they applied, but when they were accepted, they enrolled at higher rates. 

• First-year grades were slightly lower for nonsubmitters, but they ended up highly successful, graduating at equivalent rates or -- at some institutions -- slightly higher rates than did those who submitted test scores. This, the report says, is "the ultimate proof of success."[9]

On the other hand, a study out of University of Georgia, which examined 180 liberal art colleges, 32 that were test optional, argues that, “on average, test-optional policies enhance the perceived selectivity, rather than the diversity, of participating institutions”. 

Others argue that as all colleges are struggling with enrollment and are looking for more fee paying students, test optional admissions actually benefits students from wealthy families, who would otherwise be considered borderline applicants.[10] Institutions have an incentive to take on more students who do not require financial aid because those students do not submit their sub-par scores and thus do not impact the school’s average test scores of that incoming freshman class, but help the school’s bottom line.

The College Board, unsurprisingly maintains that, “although the test-optional movement has received ample attention, its claims have rarely been subjected to empirical scrutiny. [Their book] provides a much-needed evaluation of the use and value of standardized admissions tests in an era of widespread grade inflation”.[11] One professor notes that,

[t]est-optional policies indirectly contribute to something of a uniquely American phobia – the fear (often hatred) of standardized testing, particularly testing perceived to have high stakes. Standardized tests can be abused, we now understand they can be easily falsified, and they can be overused. That said, they also help reveal what one knows and what one doesn’t know. That’s not a bad tool to keep handy.[12]

It would seem, at the very least, that more widespread research is required. COVID19 may be that chance! 

7.  What’s the Future for Test-Optional?

Wait and see – some worry about the loss of the only standardized metric.

Whether the case against the University of California system, the massive cheating scandals in Asia and in the US, and now with COVID19 – has the requirement for SAT/ACT scores hit a tipping point? The answer to this question, for now, remains unknown. Nonetheless, given the highly beneficial impacts of going test optional for the institutions themselves – some institutions may move in that direction. 

On the other hand – many schools will retain the requirement for SAT/ACT scores as their only standardized data point – think particularly, here, of the differing needs of a small liberal arts school versus a state school. 

Dr. Catherine Snowden of College Planning Partners, argues that,

grade inflation is a HUGE problem. While I hate the word holistic because it is so common in the conversation surrounding admission, it is critical when discussing test scores as they are part of the picture, but they are the single only standardized data point. That is what is so important.  

One professor notes that if half of all high school students graduate with an A-average, these tests are an imperfect counterweight - with their historical bias towards white upper class males - to unfair distinctions made often the result of socioeconomic biases (think struggling public school versus elite private or public magnet school). Strong test scores help overcome those bias.

For now, we will have to wait, track, and see.

8.  If the Future might be more Test-Optional – what should students do?

Maximize your options by making the SAT/ACT part of your college admissions plan – unless you’ve hit a wall (and in that case, do your homework on which schools and merit scholarship criteria will not put you at a disadvantage).

While the future of college admission is currently leaning towards greater flexibility regarding SAT/ACT scores, students who score as high as possible on the tests will likely have more options for admissions and scholarships. 

Dr. Snowden and Ms. Pam Ohno, also of College Planning Partners, note that even if some schools remain test optional after COVID19, test optional is not the same test blind. Dr. Snowden argues that 

many of our students’ strong test scores may be the thing that gets them in, even at the test-optional school, as very few are test-blind. A “borderline” student might well be helped by a test score. We just don’t know that until they try the test. Clearly, this year, students will have to apply test-optional because they may not have a test score, (and that is not the usual situation, of course), but I hate to group this year’s test optional situation in with schools that are test optional permanently. At test optional schools, our students generally choose to apply without submitting their scores because of test scores themselves, not because they did not test. 

 Ms. Ohno, says the biggest question students/families have is “Do I still need to test?”

In my opinion, the answer is still YES, however you can. I go back to Catherine’s statement – TEST OPTIONAL DOES NOT MEAN TEST BLIND. A weak application without a test is still a weak application. A weak application and a great test score? Anecdotal cases would tell you that it COULD equal a big payoff (we have seen it happen). If students are thinking about skipping the test, what else does their application have that colleges will value? Context is key here. Why WOULDN’T you try to strengthen your application in every way you can?

So, while we wait to see whether colleges decide to remain test optional – the questions to ask as you look to apply to schools are

(1)   do any of your schools require test scores?

(2)   even if they are test optional – do they have any restrictions that might apply to your application, such as requiring tests without a minimum GPA/class rank or for certain majors/programs?

(3)   even if they are test optional – is your application sufficiently strong without them?

(4)   even if they are test optional – do scholarships that require test scores?

 

Dr. Ashleigh Barnes

CLO & Founder

University Select

[1] https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1dg8b5d1-5I2DOYiF4Ez2UrFVzhYLb95zQiCpCvzzx9Q/edit#gid=0.

[2] https://www.fairtest.org/university/optional. According to the National Center for Education Statistics there are 2,828 Accredited Postsecondary 4-year colleges and universities; U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2019). Digest of Education Statistics, 2018 (NCES 2020-009), Chapter 3. https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d18/ch_3.asp.

[3] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/15/us/sat-act-test-optional-colleges-coronavirus.html

[4] https://admissions.cornell.edu/news/cornell-university-suspends-actsat-testing-requirement-2021-applicants. Emphasis added.

[5] For need-based scholarships, HERE is a list of 36 institutions where (1) 90% or more of the freshman class receive financial aid, (2) the average amount of aid was 40% or more of the total cost of attendance and (3) the SAT/ACT was only at most recommended, but also not required.

[6] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/whos-benefiting-from-test-optional-colleges/.

[7] https://www.insidehighered.com/admissions/views/2019/11/04/threatened-suit-block-sat-and-act-being-used-california-just-one-legal

[8] https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeltnietzel/2019/03/18/test-optional-admissions-the-momentum-will-grow/#705cb34a4ccb; https://theconversation.com/if-you-thought-colleges-making-the-sat-optional-would-level-the-playing-field-think-again-89896.

[9] https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/04/27/large-study-finds-colleges-go-test-optional-become-more-diverse-and-maintain.

[10] See also https://www.collegetransitions.com/blog/test-optional-admissions/: If you are individual who, for one reason or another, cannot achieve SAT/ACT scores that are commensurate with your ability as a student, then exploring the test-optional route makes good sense. However, unless you possess a blank check to cover your four years of study, due diligence on each test-optional/flexible school to which you apply is essential.

[11] https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/title/measuring-success.

[12] https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeltnietzel/2019/03/18/test-optional-admissions-the-momentum-will-grow/#3b8cdd9f4ccb