I see, but 20 points doesnt change the narrative. Emory is a clear step above, the other poster is trying to make it seem like it opaque.
If I’m reading Emory’s Common Data Set correctly, only 42% of enrolled first-years in 2023 submitted an SAT score, vs. 26% for Wake Forest. Neither is a high percentage.
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I alluded to this earlier, but I believe there is significant test discrepancy between students accepted straight into Atlanta campus (which I think is what most of us here think of when discussing the school) vs those accepted into the Oxford campus.
Anecdotally, from our “top” HS, Emory students are stronger and more academically oriented than those who go to Wake. The Emory ones are significantly more diverse too.
Citation? I do not think there is any test discrepancy between Emory’s 2 campuses, although I am willing to be corrected if there’s some proof out there.
There is a widespread misconception that it is easier to be admitted to the Oxford campus. It is not. The acceptance rate is a hair higher, but – at least to me – the difference is not material.
Sounds like you have a very strong opinion about Emory being somehow a step above Vandy, Wake, WashU, etc., that is respectable, although I think the thread is about a more generalized issue
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I don’t, I’m sorry. The comment was based on my impression and local to me results. I have a similar impression of NEU Boston and their various satellites.
I read this whole discussion with interest as we had a very hard time deciding whether to submit our 2025 kid’s SAT scores to the full range of small LACs she applied to, even though all are test optional. In the end she did submit them, even though her 1370 SAT is nothing fancy (she took it as part of the required state testing regimen, and refused to take it again, lol). She has always been an excellent, dedicated student with good ECs and supplements, but she attends a tiny charter school with few honors courses and zero AP classes, so her GPA is pretty much capped at a little above 4. Part of the reason we had her submit her scores was to reflect some sort of basic baseline for colleges given her school background. (I personally think test scores should be mandatory in most cases – they are likely artificially inflated now because only those with high scores submit, and for folks from disadvantaged backgrounds, decent scores can make a huge difference. I should know – it’s how I got into Oberlin coming from a very poor family in the rural Midwest. My husband, on the other hand, got into Oberlin with similar scores having gone to prep school on the East Coast. We both did fine.) It will be interesting to see what happens with my kid’s applications – she only applied RD as most of the schools were too far to visit. We’ll visit any acceptances and hope for the best. Luckily she understood right away that the schools she applied to are all a bit similar and she will likely be happy at any them, so she doesn’t have her heart set on one in particular. She’s just looking forward to meeting new people and trying new things after growing up an only child in a tiny town in rural New Hampshire. 
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We had a presentation by our school college counselor last night, and one of the takeaways from the class of 2025 common app was that the % of students submitting scores went up (I think it was by high single digits but don’t recall exact increase), so that the % of kids submitting a test score is now back above 50%.
Other takeaways related to some of the discussion above were that most of the increase was from wealthier areas so given that students are judged against their school, this is something to factor in when deciding to go test optional or not ; that they are hearing more from colleges, especially the more selective ones, that test optional hasn’t always had good outcomes against a background of grade inflation with some students struggling to keep up, and they expect more schools will go back to test requirements as a result; and that they do expect average test scores reported on CDS etc to go down as the self-selection of only reporting higher scores gets undermined.
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See below for the common app data thru January 1 (so more apps to come).
Obviously the common app doesn’t represent all the application volume, maybe 70% or so? Much of the remaining app volume would be test blind or test optional…the UCs and CSUs are probably the largest part of that non-common app volume and they are test blind.
Trends in applicants’ test score reporting behaviors
As reported in the past, the share of Common App members requiring standardized
test scores has changed dramatically over the past decade — from about 55% in
2019–20 to an all-time low of just 4% in 2023–24. This season, 5% of members
require a test score to submit an application. In Figure 20, the number of applicants
reporting a test score has grown faster than the number not reporting a test score,
with a 10% increase among reporters while the number of non-reporters has
remained steady since the 2023–24 season. This reversed two seasons of faster
growth in the number of applicants not reporting a test score between 2022–23 and
2023–24.In our December deadline update, there were 9,455 more students reporting test
scores than not reporting. In this update, there are now 6,162 more students not
reporting test scores. We see that first-generation students, URM students, fee
waiver eligible students, and students from below median income communities
were more likely to apply without submitting a test score. However, the number of
students reporting test scores consistently grew faster than the numbers not
reporting test scores within these subgroups. Appendix Figures A6–A13 illustrate
test score reporting disaggregated by first-generation status, URM status, fee
waiver eligibility, and ZIP code-level income.
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I had a whole thread about whether to submit a 1390, which seemed crazy to stress about but now feels like everyone is over 1500. Ultimately we submitted because of the same reasons you did and because the places we were looking at, SO many were declining to submit that it seemed certain the middle 50% was inflated.
Good luck to you guys!
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*Not considering California publics or LACs in my post.
Agree with idea of missing data points. No rank and no test score makes it tough to evaluate applicants. Home school students also really need test scores. I can see large public universities requiring test scores for engineering, business and nursing. I think many of those majors are test preferred whether the school says so or not (Clemson and Auburn).
Thanks so much for mentioning your other thread – super interesting! Similarly, our kid’s SAT score was significantly higher than her school and state averages, which we thought was helpful. (And she applied to Bates too as one of her reaches.) Good luck to you all as well! 
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As another example on missing data points: my S23 attended a very small Waldorf high school, which offered honors options for classes but not AP classes. He had a high GPA but how could colleges contextualize a small, unusual school like that?
Testing. In his case I firmly believe his 790RW/750M of course isn’t the reason he got in anywhere, yet it confirmed for the AOs that his high grades and (what I’m certain were heartfelt and excellent) recommendation letters were an accurate reflection of his abilities.
As I told my kid: the SAT is a dumb test, but it was a dumb test that validated that your grades and teacher letters were real.
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I think it really affects engineering, certain majors “worship at the altar of stats” and obviously that is one of them.
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