Many colleges have reviewed differences in which groups are admitted as test optional and test submitter, at test optional colleges. Of the dozens of colleges I have seen do tis comparison, every one found that test optional admits were less likely to be affluent than test submitter admits. This is not surprising to me, when one looks at the distribution of high scores by income level. Some specific numbers from the Chetty study are below.
Portion of Kids Scoring 1400+ on SAT by Parents Income
99.9 Percentile Income – 19%
99th Percentile Income – 14%
98th Percentile Income – 11%
97th Percentile Income – 10%
96th Percentile Income – 8%
95th Percentile Income – 7%
90-95th Percentile – 5%
80-90th Percentile – 3%
70-80th Percentile – 2%
60-70th Percentile – 1%
50-60th Percentile – 0.7%
40-50th Percentile – 0.4%
20-40th Percentile – 0.3%
0-20th Percentile – 0.1%
At 1500+ SAT, the distribution is even more unbalanced
Portion of Kids Scoring 1500+ on SAT by Parents Income
99.9th Percentile Income – 7%
99th Percentile Income – 5%
98th Percentile Income – 4%
96-97th Percentile Income – 3%
90-95th Percentile Income – 2%
…
Median Income – 0.2%
Low Income – 0.0%
This does not discuss the reasons for the correlation with income. I’m sure on average higher quality education throughout the students’ lifetime plays a role. It’s most certainly not just better prep or higher rate of special allowances.
This correlation between scores and income is stronger than other parts of the application that I have seen reviewed. For example, the Chetty study found that after controlling for test scores, top 1% income kids were 1.2x more likely to have high scores in non-academic categories like ECs than low income kids. That 1.2x higher rate for top 1% income kids is statistically significant, but is much smaller than the correlations between high test score and income discussed above.