The Caltech petition stated that professors felt there had been a decline in student preparedness. However, the petition did not claim that that the professors’ anecdotal observations had statistical significance. Therefore,
the second call of the petition was for the creation of a faculty committee to evaluate the efficacy of the current admissions process, as well as to gather more quantitative data. Asimow described an already in-progress study on the utility of SAT scores as predictors of success at Caltech.
It’s also unclear how much of the decline in preparedness might properly be attributed to the effects of COVID related interruptions in kids’ education, rather than test optional applicant selection.
Caltech is trying to figure it out.
Currently, the Advisory Committee is scheduled to report their findings about standardized testing by the end of March, while the recommendations about the role of extracurricular activities will not be released by the end of April. The goal is to have a complete report by the end of May for use in the Class of 2029 admissions cycle, but Rosenbaum and Gilmartin both emphasized that the work of the Committee should not be rushed.