As a way to level the playing field for underrepresented students, over the last several years some colleges and universities have stopped requiring potential applicants to submit SAT or ACT scores as an application requirement. A recent study published in the peer-reviewed American Educational Research Journal found that making admissions test-optional does not substantially raise the share of low-income students or students of color at these schools. Among the study’s findings:
- Test-optional admissions increased the share of low-income, Black, Latino, and Native American students by 3-4% at the colleges and universities that adopted the policy between the 2005-06 academic year and 2015-16 academic year.
- This amounted to a 1 percentage point increase and little impact on the overall school enrollment of these populations.
- There was a low uptake in the test-optional admissions policy. Only 20 to 30 percent of applicants to the 100 schools studied took advantage of test-optional admissions.
- The majority of applicants continued to submit test scores.
- There was a 6% to 8% increase in the first-time enrollment of women following a test-optional policy adoption.
- Selective institutions had an under-represented minority student enrollment increase of 7.7% following a test-optional admissions policy compared to an increase of 12.5% at less selective institutions.
