Sally_Rubenstone

Question: My son is an excellent student (top 10th of class) with good extracurriculars (literary magazine co-editor, student council member, glee club president, Model UN). His math SAT score is decent (670) but his Critical Reading score (560) is well below the mid-point range at the colleges that interest him. Based on his testing [...]

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boysx3

Sally,
I'm glad you put in to words what I've always suspected. For the schools where the submission of test scores is "optional" I've always thought that the readers of the applications took for granted that the reason a student did not submit scores was because the scores were not good. After all, a student with scores high relative to those reported by the school would certainly want them to be considered !

I've always thought that score choice served the schools' best interests in two ways:

1) a score-optional policy "raises" the schools academic profile, making it look more selective, because with only "good" scores being submitted by applicants the average scores are obviously higher; and

2)by attracting a broader range of applicants it lets the school mold its class in ways it could not--for example, by attracting more athletes or urms, etc.--whatever the perceived need of the school is at some point in time,

Sally_Rubenstone

One plus of the College Board's new "Score Choice" policy (which, overall, has pros and cons) is that it does give better options to students applying to test-optional colleges.

For years I've fielded "To Send or Not to Send?" queries, most commonly when a student's SAT I scores were skewed ... or when the SAT I's were weak overall but the SAT II's were strong ... or vice versa.

So now students with middling SAT I's can take a range of Subject Tests and may decide to send the best Subject Test scores to the test-optional colleges while withholding the SAT I results. This way, a student with a low Math and/or CR score on the SAT I can still show off strength in foreign language, science, or history. Likewise, students with lousy CR scores but good math scores on the SAT I can submit Math subject tests without revealing the SAT I results. Or English class stars can set the Lit test results but reveal nothing to do with math.

Unfortunately, however, all of this will still require some degree of strategizing, and typically the students from the more advantaged backgrounds will get a leg up when playing this game.

erhswimming

I know at my private LAC, we went test optional for class of 2012, but if you wanted to be considered for scholarships you had to submit your test scores. There is a cutoff on the test scores for scholarship consideration, so maybe it's best for some to submit and some not to?

ca_mom2000

My dd applied for EA at a school that did not require her to send her SAT scores. She used their portfolio process instead. She was admitted during the EA process. However, the amount of merit aid she was awarded was laughable. I don't know if there was any correlation. She will not be attending the school.

fa-la-la-lena

This made me think of something I learned in economics class last semester, when she discussed a study that her and a few other professors conducted.
https://www.msu.edu/~dickertc/301f06/SAT.pdf
It's quite interesting (I am an economics major though, haha) and it discusses the economics of the test-optional policy, in relation to theory (of voluntary disclosure) and in practice.
Voluntary disclosure is this - people have incentive to reveal their SAT scores despite the fact that their SAT scores may not be up to par, because people don't want schools to assume that their SAT scores are worse than they actually are. Therefore, it is not necessary to make test scores mandatory for colleges, because students realize this. Say, School X (with a test-optional policy) has an average SAT of 2000. Students that submit their score may have an SAT lower than that - 1800 for example. But they still choose to submit their SAT score, because they assume one of several things; 1, their SAT score is representative of their ability as a student; 2, their SAT improves upon the rest of their application; or 3, revealing their SAT score would prevent the college from assuming that the student was a worse student than they actually are.

Debruns

Colleges do have an * in lists like US News College Guide to show they are optional and the SAT ratios will be "off". I think most people know that is the case and hopefully you aren't using that guide only to apply to the college.
I realized when I looked into SAT optional and aid, that many schools will accept students, but not really count their grades toward any merit aid, which to me, although understanding their reasons, seems to smack more of manipulating rank or attracting full frieight students that didn't test as well.
Some colleges though, like Drew, Providence, Smith and others, accept and give merit based on your grades and recs and strength of classes. I know of two students at least that proved that to be the case, it might not be the majority of course, but at least they "walk the walk" to some degree.

Fa-la-la-lena, I agree with your points, but some schools like Providence tell you a cut-off...he said 550 and below, so they don't know exactly, just have an idea. (That was 550 for all areas, not one.)

toadstool

ditto Fa-Fa-La-Lena: CC Students are breed from birth to take these high stakes tests. Colleges know the scores exist. NOT submitting test scores is likely to raise eyebrows in not positive ways.

Super-competitive colleges also say in their websites that they require something like three years of math, two of science etc etc, when we all know that only a supercharged transcript will get one in the door. Same with test scores - not required, but....

Check out the Rose Hulman admission website. Required: transcript and test scores only......but if you would like to send an essay or two, recommendations or SAT IIs, plus other suppliements, they will be read. Tis' the quintessential example of "not required, but no chance of admission if you don't" games.

Explaining this to literal/engineering-minded family members has been interesting.

cogsci03

My advice -- submit if your scores are good, don't if they aren't. It's hard to know whether your scores are "good," but see if your college counselor can offer some advice in the matter. Did your counselor see your grades and your scores and say, "ok, that makes sense," or did s/he say, "wow, you're a bad test-taker"? Usually with some advice from school and some comparison with similar students you can get a good idea of whether the scores were an accurate, positive, or negative reflection of you. If accurate or positive, submit the scores. If you think you're a bad test-taker, DO NOT SUBMIT THEM.

I've served on an admissions committee for an honors program, wherein I've read college applications with optional scores. Yes, I'm very slightly suspicious of people who don't list their scores, but I also think that the SAT is quite problematic so I just shrug it off and ignore it. I'll give those people a fair shake and judge based on the essays, grades, recommendations, etc instead. I've run into a few people who have done themselves in by submitting low scores. We tend to take people with around a 2200 on the SAT, and the ones who don't submit scores look just like the ones who do in all other measures (very high GPAs, great writing, etc). Occasionally someone looks great in all other areas of the application, but they've submitted a bad score, like an 1800 or less. It somewhat sours you on the rest of the application.

So again, try to see whether your scores would normally be helping you or hurting you at a school that makes them mandatory. If they'd be hurting you, just leave them off!

Debruns

Why would someone be suspicious of non Sat submittal? I would think unless they were a protesting the whole test thing, the reason they didn't, is that they didn't represent them in a way they felt was accurate. I know colleges give reasons for going SAT optional, it doesn't seem fair to say one thing and then say, "If you do go this route, it raises a flag". The reasons are to give test takers a choice and show somethng other than a 1 set of numbers.
I appreciated one AO who said a number, if below we might not see you as clearly as if you sent no scores but corrected papers, an extra essay or maybe another rec.
I've heard the "red flag" reference quite often but never really understood, it, the reason for the non SAT submittal is to see the student more holistically, (and for admissions tweaking I'm sure in some cases)Obviously if the student was getting 2200, they would submit it in most cases.

Gaby3

I've read about or known students that appliied SAT optional to good schools and got in with aid, but I have no idea the amount of students who do this and results. There is also no definitive way of knowing if aid would have been more or less if scores were submitted.
Maybe in the future, anyone who did submit SAT optional to a school can post how they made out in certain areas, whether it was full SAT optional or just submitting some scores like AP or SAT ll.

One link I read recently:

http://www.mtholyoke.edu/offices/com...ults_sat.shtml

kathleen2010

This is somewhat related, but how does it work if a school (especially an elite one) says they require, for example, SAT and subject tests OR ACT. Do they really mean just submit one or the other? My ACT is very good and my SAT is about 25% percentile. Can I just submit ACT results, or is it an unwritten rule that you must submit both?

Sally_Rubenstone

kathleen2010--In such cases, I advise students to submit the ACT and, if possible, a couple of SAT Subject Test scores, too, even if not submitting the SAT I results. At the most selective colleges, you will be "competing" with applicants who have taken--and scored well on--a whole barrage of Subject Tests and who can thus showcase strengths in areas outside of those covered by the ACT or SAT I (foreign language, physics, history, etc.).

So my advice is this: If a college will allow the ACT score to place BOTH the SAT I and the SAT II, and if all your SAT results are mediocre but your ACT is stronger, then send just the ACT. But if you can combine a good ACT with some good Subject Tests, then that's the way to go.

gcf101

Here's another look:
The Other Side of ‘Test Optional’

Sally_Rubenstone

Thanks for the link, gcf101. I thought that it was an interesting article ... especially since it echoed some of my own thoughts on the cynical side of why colleges decide to become test-optional.

It also raised some good points about awarding merit aid in a test-optional process. I was delighted to see two of my all-time favorite admissions honchos quoted in the story, Deb Shaver of Smith and Bob Massa of Dickinson. (Well, technically, Bob Massa is now a former admissions honcho. He recently left a long and distinguished admissions career to become VP for Communications at Lafayette.)

In this article ("The Other Side of ‘Test Optional' "), Deb Shaver suggests that it doesn't make sense to exclude test scores from the decision-making process but then require them for merit scholarships.

Massa, however, counters that he finds nothing hypocritical in expecting test scores from merit-aid contenders, pointing out that the main idea of merit aid is to snatch top candidates away from competitor colleges. “Why on earth would we award a non-need scholarship to someone who is not going to get funds from a similar institution?” asks Massa.

I certainly see Deb's side, but I'm with Bob on this one (sorry, Deb). I think that it's fine to insist on test scores as a quid pro quo for merit bucks.

BUT ... I also think that test-optional colleges need to clearly publicize their aid-award policies. Are test scores mandatory for merit-aid consideration? If not, will those who do submit strong test results still have an edge over those who don't submit any scores?

Given how hard it is to extract information about so many varying application policies without having an advanced degree in Scavenger Hunting, it does worry me that students who apply to test-optional colleges without submitting test scores may have no clue that they could be torpedoing their shot at merit money.

Of course, if their scores are low, they might not be in the running for these scholarships anyway, but sometimes "low" scores can be in the eye of the beholder, so many students (and their parents) don't have a realistic sense of where their test results will put them in the merit-aid arms race, and colleges are often vague about that when asked. Admittedly, this vagueness about who is really on the short list for merit aid (and for how much) is true at most merit-aid colleges, but it seems especially true at test-optional schools.

So students who are on the fence about whether to send--or not send--their test scores to test-optional colleges have yet another caveat emptor sitution to consider.

(Yikes ... I used two Latin phrases in this post, despite the fact that I recently told my 12-year-old son that I was happy he had decided to take Spanish in school in lieu of Latin. Well, I took three years of Latin myself, and you've just seen pretty much all I can remember )