UChicago won’t know how influential TO is for several years. The first group still has 3 years, 2 quarters before Commencement. Also, the jump in early TO applicants was 20% per the article. So word is out, now we just have to see how many apply and how many are admitted.
UChicago purportedly DOES have improved resources to direct to these students if they need it, and they’ve had decent success with their Odyssey group so aren’t going into this venture green. Futhermore, they tested Empower in the Chicago area for something like nine or 10 years first before going national (not sure they employed TO but they absolutely tracked test scores and performance of those kids).
It’s tempting to view TO as yet another rabbit that the Great Nondorfini has pulled out of his hat, but he couldn’t have implemented this without the approval of his colleagues in the President’s Office - or the board. Trott (among others) has been pushing better access to rural kids because he himself was a high achieving rural kid whose time at UChicago opened doors that weren’t there before. Let those who have walked the walk do the talking on this issue, would be my take. Furthermore, they have the internal stats and the internal academic studies - from competent authorities, no less - to do this intelligently. I’m witholding judgement till I know how it plays out. I’m enthusiastic about neither Test Optional NOR paid prep so I’m prepared to sit back and watch the experiment unfold.
I think rather than the suggested virtue-signaling that some perceive this move to be, the press releases might be devised to put pressure on other elite schools to do the same. UChicago has no qualms about this move and they think it’s the right thing to do at this time. They no longer perceive the SAT/ACT as the equalizer that it was in Hebe’s day - or my day. Given the devolution into “superscoring” and score choice etc, I can see their point.