The UC system of computing GPA on a subset of a students years, limiting consideration of Honors/AP classes, and being completely test blind is purposely designed to limit the data used in their admissions process.
I don’t know if this path is on topic or not, but in case it is, I’ll note that the conditions under which kids take the SAT/ACT and the stakes make it different in kind than most tests kids take in school—starting with the fact that tests in school are on specific content recently taught. This is also why kids who might not do well on the SAT/ACT often do well on AP exams—those are covering content students were taught for months.
Most kids can also be extensively prepped to succeed on an SAT/ACT. But why? At that point, what is the SAT/ACT showing you that isn’t being shown through in-school tests? And why, if a kid can prep and retake it multiple times, do we trust that the results of the SAT/ACT are more reliable/less impeachable than school grades?
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One admission officer stated it thus: Test Optional does not mean Achievement Optional.
When applying test optional, you need to be able to demonstrate your achievements without using an SAT or ACT score.
The other parts of your application become more important, not less.
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I think what is difficult is that some schools and some admissions officers for some programs, really are test optional. And others really aren’t. The lack of transparency is an issue, at least at the UCs you know they don’t matter and at Georgetown you know they do. I wish schools would just go one way or the other, even if they do it by program.
My D23 applied test optional (3.7ish UW GPA) to 13 schools and was accepted to all of them with merit at all. She didn’t apply to top 50 schools but was accepted to Trinity U, Baylor, Furman, Sewanee, Elon, and others without scores and without any hooks. She’s a humanities student which I think definitely does matter.
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This is true (the prepping) and this is the socioeconomic advantage - but studies from various organizations and college have shown that standardized testing is amongst the best determinants of future success.
There’s a reason these schools want it.
I’m not them - just stating the facts.
You named privates only - and publics are also TO.
But second level schools - fine schools all you mentioned - have low yields and have other things they need to look at - namely revenue.
I think the equation is entirely different.
There are as many studies showing that high school GPA is a better predictor than SAT. Here’s one debunking the claim made in the UC faculty study: SAT/ACT Scores, High-School GPA, and the problem of Omitted Variable Bias: Why the UC Taskforce’s Findings are Spurious, by Saul Geiser, 1.20 (March 2020) | Center for Studies in Higher Education
I don’t think anyone can claim conclusive proof of either hypothesis.
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Are you sure that’s still true? Probably was before TO but I don’t think so anymore. For example, my D will attend Villanova which is a great school but not a top 20 school. Per their website their class of 2027 had an average ACT of 34 (mid 50 range 33-35). Pre Covid/before TO, it was 31. I’ll bet there are a lot more TO schools now with stats that high.
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However, the decision to strip out test scores (and perhaps the other items, I don’t know) was NOT at the request of the academics. The faculty senate actually recommended leaving tests in place as I understand it.
Villanova’s common data set for last year shows a 50% ACT of 33. A 34 was 75%. What is more striking is that only 43% of enrolled students submitted a test score so those numbers are undoubtedly somewhat skewed.
My honest opinion:
Test optional is another effort to place higher standards on suburban upper middle income class kids creating nuanced implicit bias.
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The most recent CDS that has been released is from 2022-2023, which includes the data from the class of 2026. (That is where your data is from). However, on the Villanova website they publish information about their most recent class of 2027. It’s not the full CDS, it’s more like a press release. A lot of schools do that before the CDS is released. The first year admission profile for class of 2027 the data is a bit higher.
Keep in mind that data for admitted students is not comparable to the CDS, which has data only for enrolled students.
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Ah! I had not noticed the difference. Thanks for clarifying! The enrolled probably are lower and maybe more in line with 2026 class (one whole point lower). Could explain how my 32 got in!! But of course some of the other admitted data is actually reported directly on CDS…like the admission rate ( 
) which is lower for 2027 (20.5%) than 2026 (23%) for example. Thanks again for clarifying.
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I wonder the % that submitted. A year ago 43%. 33-5 Seems awfully high for ‘Nova….but is what they are showing.
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I think all school scores went up when they went TO. Four years ago with 100 percent submitting (some ACT/Some SAT) mid 50 was 30-33, average 31. Class of 2026 mid 50 was 32-34. Only 15 percent submitted ACT and 28 percent submitted SAT (mid 50 1390-1480). I’ve compared a lot of schools we applied to and most of them went up several points over the last four years as TO became the norm.
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That makes sense because only high test scorers are submitting. At Villanova it doesn’t seem as if tests are critical as half the admitted class was TO.
We applied to more than a dozen schools and all of them have only about half of people submitting scores, including the most selective schools we applied to…NEU, BC and Tulane. I think TO is really common at a lot of schools. So it’s definitely an option at most places. But I still think a good score helps…even if it’s a little below the mid 50 range, as my D’s was.
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That and at many of these schools - money
Many need aware have low % of people getting need aid.
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I agree! As a first-gen myself from a working class background I can tell you for sure that my kids have a huge leg up compared to when I went to school.
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