Dive Brief:
- More than 200 colleges are now test-optional, meaning applicants don't need to submit SAT or ACT scores as part of their admissions packet — and it has changed the admissions process as well as their student applicant pool.
- According to eCampus News, a study for the National Association for College Admission Counseling two years ago found the difference between cumulative GPAs and graduation rates of submitters and non-submitters of standardized test scores to be almost nonexistent, which helped speed adoption of the policy at colleges nationwide.
- Switching takes away the problem of “false negatives,” in which standardized test scores incorrectly identify students as less likely to succeed, and holistic admissions processes pay more attention to high school grades and letters of recommendation, for example, often seeing an increase in applicants and a more diverse cohort because of it.
Dive Insight:
Virtually every single college in the country already contextualizes standardized test scores by comparing them to a student’s entire file. A low score alone is rarely enough to disqualify a student from admissions. But the rise in applications at schools that have gone test-optional indicates students might not know that. Test-optional policies empower students to try where they otherwise would have assumed themselves to be unqualified.
One problem with relying too heavily on letters of recommendation, however, is the fact that students from under-resourced high schools have less access to strong recommenders. Whether the teachers at under-resourced high schools do not have the skills to write a high-quality letter, don’t understand what is at stake, or simply don’t have the time to craft a good one, their students lose.