<p>gellino,</p>
<p>I completely agree with you: the test-optional policies of even a small handful of schools make all these rankings pretty much garbage. UC Berkeley’s reported SAT 25th-75th percentile figures are based on SAT scores from 100% of its entering class, according to US News. Test-optional Hamilton’s SAT percentiles are based on scores from 59% of its entering class; Bates based its percentiles on scores from 50% of its entering class. It only stands to reason that the 41% not reporting SAT scores at Hamilton and the 50% not reporting SAT scores at Bates are likely lower scorers than those who did report their scores. These are simply not comparable sets of figures.</p>
<p>Interestingly, though, this phenomenon extends beyond SAT-optional schools. Many schools allow submission of the ACT in lieu of the SAT, but they may be reporting their SAT and ACT medians differently to USNews.</p>
<p>School / % reporting SAT / % reporting ACT / ACT% + SAT%</p>
<p>Hamilton* / 59% / n/a / 59%
Bates* / 50% / 18% / 68%
Bowdoin* / 74% / 20% / 94%
Amherst / 76% / 23% / 99%
UC Berkeley / 100% / n/a / 100%
Williams / 96% / 16% / 112%
Yale / 92% / 24% / 116%
Swarthmore / 95% / 24% / 119%
Wellesley / 90% / 35% / 125%
MIT / 97% / 29% / 126%
Michigan / 53% / 74% / 127%</p>
<ul>
<li>SAT optional</li>
</ul>
<p>I list these in rank order by SAT% + ACT% because that figure shows that some schools are reporting both SAT and ACT scores for students who submit both, while other schools may be reporting more selectively. Since in the vast majority of cases either the ACT or the SAT will be the higher score, the schools that report both scores are effectively dragging down their reported 25th/75th percentile scores by including the lower score in their reported scores.</p>
<p>Now consider Amherst. Amherst isn’t test-optional; it requires submission of either the SAT or the ACT. Yet the sum of those reporting SAT scores and those reporting ACT scores adds up to only 99% of Amherst’s entering class. Call it 100%, attributing the difference to rounding. But even so: are we to believe that NO applicant to Amherst submitted both SAT and ACT scores, while at the same time schools like Wellesley, MIT, and Michigan were getting submission of BOTH scores from upwards of 25% of their applicants, and even nearby rivals like Williams and Yale were getting double submissions from 12% and 16% respectively? It makes no sense. More likely Amherst is simply reporting only the higher of the two scores and treating the lower one as unreported, thereby artificially inflating its SAT and ACT medians relative to its rivals who are reporting all scores they receive. </p>
<p>There may be many more anomalies like this out there. But just a few—the test-optional schools for sure, plus a few more in the Amherst category—are enough to make garbage of the entire exercise, and the entire so-called “objective” component of the US News rankings.</p>