Charts showing the changes in numbers of students rather than percentages are below. There are obviously other factors influencing the demographic trends than just the switch from test optional to test blind, which makes it unclear how much impact the switch to test blind is having on demographics.
For ALANA, the increase in applications starts in 2018 and whatever changed in 2018 to cause ALANA applications to increase more than other demographics seems to persist after switching to test blind.
For international, the decrease in applications also starts in 2018, but whatever changed in 2018 seems to stop after switching to test blind. However, that doesn’t mean that test blind must have been the cause of this international application trend reversal. A lot of other things changed at this time such as COVID, the vast majority of peer colleges no longer requiring test scores, WPI introducing binding ED to improve yield, WPI plummeting in USNWR rankings (dropped from 63 in 2022, to 67 in 2023, to 82 in 2024, to 86 in 2025), changes in FA and merit scholarships, supreme court ruling (note the change in trend for admits in Fall 2024)… Or it may primarily relate to different recruiting efforts.
