Impact of SAT optional admissions

OHMomof2
Fri, 19 Jan 2018 22:02:50 +0000

We found no changes in low-income and underrepresented student enrollment after the colleges went test-optional. Instead, we found an unintended consequence of these efforts: Test-optional policies led to an increase in the number of applications overall.

I don’t think that consequence was unintended.

Until this article I’d never heard “attracting low income and minority applicants” as a reason given for a school going test-optional. It seems they generally say something like “some brilliant kids don’t test well and we might want them here” or “SAT/ACT do a poor job f predicting college success”.

As an aside, the article in the OP is very, very similar to this article from 2015. If I were a college professor I’d be running it through a plagiarism filter.