What is Test Optional? What is Test Blind?

Test optional

This is the middle ground: students may choose to send scores if they have them. The vast majority of schools have this testing policy in place. And this is where things get very sticky. So, should a student submit or not? Every year in their Common Data Set, colleges and universities report the 25th to 75th percentile of SAT and ACT scores as well as the % of incoming students that reported test scores. The general rule of thumb, that we tend to agree with, is that if you student is above the 50th percentile of the range then they should submit their score to that school.

And how, exactly, will a student with scores be compared to a student without them?  Unlike the “test blind” policy in which scores will not be considered for any applicant, the playing field under the “test optional” policy is unclear at best and completely uneven at worst. On our College Admissions Experts Facebook Group of over 100,000 members, parents are continually asking whether their student should submit scores to College X and, if they don’t submit, will it hurt their chances of being admitted?

Test blind

The University of California System is an example of schools that will not even look at test scores even if they are submitted. A test blind school will look at all applications without any reference to scores whatsoever. The admissions office won’t even see SAT or ACT scores. Thus all students are immediately put on an even (scoreless) playing field—or so it seems (more on that in a minute).

How many times should I take the SAT? How many times should I take the ACT?

Like mentioned earlier, the vast majority of schools are test optional. However, reporting a SAT or ACT score that is above average for a college will increase your odds of being accepted.

So, how many times should you take the SAT or ACT? As many times as necessary until you feel that you are not making any material improvement. If you score a 1400 on your SAT but your goal is the Ivy League universities then you will likely need to take it again as almost all of the Ivies require test scores. The average SAT score at the Ivies is the mid-1500s so, unless you have a hook, take the SAT again. As you can ‘superscore’ your SAT and ACT results’ for almost every college, these schools will have no idea how many times you took the exam.

However, if you are aiming for less selective colleges, a 1400 is a fantastic SAT score to report. Don’t waste your valuable time taking the SAT again unless you could be eligible for merit aid with a higher SAT score. If you are applying to liberal arts colleges that are truly test optional, then don’t take the SAT again unless you are convinced you can materially increase your score. Your time is best spent elsewhere on sharpening other aspects of your application like GPA and activities.

Holistic Review vs. Clear Standards

College and universities, both private and public, emphasize (even before the pandemic) that they perform a “holistic review” of students for admission. Supposedly, no one criterion is is make or break for a student. The admissions officers look at everything before rendering their decision. These factors include both objective and subjective indicators. But the only objective ones are test scores, AP scores, class rank, and level of awards earned from international down to local.

Moreover, in poring over the many messages on other professional information exchanges, it becomes apparent that some schools will still see scores even if the student elects on the application to go test optional. This is because the colleges control what they download from the Common App. If the student enters the scores into the application, then an admissions officer at a test optional school may still be able to see those scores.

Even if the student has asked that the scores NOT be considered, the reader of the application cannot really “unsee” the scores.

While I’d like to believe that an admissions officer will duly take the student’s wishes into account, if the score is on the application I am still going to assume that the admissions officer will somehow, someway take these scores into account in the “holistic” review—even if they promise not to. If it’s on the application, it will be taken into account—even informally or subliminally. You can’t unsee a score that is staring at you on the page.

Are colleges really test optional?

When the process is so subjective and the process so opaque, whom can you trust to give a kid a fair shake? Can we really trust the people in an admissions office to make the best choices?

Now let me just say that I think that the vast majority of college admissions officers are honorable people. They believe in their mission to open up higher education to a wide variety of young people. The believe that universities are engines of social mobility, and they may believe (against the evidence) that the holistic process of admissions is as fair and transparent as possible. They try hard to balance the needs of the institution they serve while offering opportunity for deserving young people.

And yet, given the extraordinarily subjective nature of this process how can we really trust that the application my son or daughter submits to a particular college will get a fair shake? Since the process is emphatically not transparent, and since the judgments being rendered seem—from the outside—completely random, why would I believe the calming rhetoric coming from admissions offices?

For many, college admissions is a very high stakes game. If the success or failure of my daughter’s application turns on the subjective judgment of a couple of anonymous people in the admission office and not on any objective indicators like test scores—how can I be confident that the process works?

A great number of families do not trust that the process works. So, they hire independent college consultants to help them navigate the mysterious world of college admission. These families understand the inherently subjective nature of the process and engage specialists to help give their kids an edge.

What Private College Counselors Tell Clients About Standardized Tests

Quite simple: take the tests.

“Test optional” means take the tests. And get a high score.

If you want to go to an elite college, and you have the opportunity (or can create the opportunity—even by driving across three states to an open testing site). You will have a better chance with a score than without.

At Great College Advice, we are telling our clients that it is beneficial to put together a standardized testing plan. In an admissions process with very, very few objective data points, the possession of a positive, very useful data point (your SAT and/or ACT score) can make the difference between acceptance and rejection.

Furthermore, private college counselors—and others who work with high-achieving, hard-driving students—know that colleges can pledge an oath not to judge an application negatively if it arrives on their desks without test scores. But these pledges are impossible to verify. And they are pretty empty, given the institutional incentives to bring in students with high scores if they have them.

Every college wants to see high SAT/ACT scores

Even colleges with “test optional” admissions policies have incentives to collect test scores that are at the upper ends of their ranges. They want the high scores, but don’t want the low ones. Colleges that have been test optional for decades, including Bates and Bowdoin, still report “average” test scores of incoming students to the ratings agencies and to the US government and in their Common Data Set. But these averages are skewed, because only students with high scores will “opt” to include them on their application.

Test optional colleges won’t say it out loud, but they really prefer that students with high test scores submit them. And those with lower test scores “opt” not to send them. This way, the average submitted test scores remain high and this is the number that the test optional college reports on.

The process of deciding whom to admit and whom to reject is secretive, opaque, and “holistic”—which means it is entirely subjective. The only way to convince me that test scores won’t be considered in any way in the admissions process is for the school to either implement an entirely test-blind policy and suppress the scores from even reaching the admissions office.

Need help with the college admissions process?

The expert admissions counselors at Great College Advice can not only assist with developing a standardized test plan but also help with high school course selection, extracurricular activities, researching colleges and overseeing the college application process.

Contact us today for your complimentary consultation.

The post What Does Test Optional Mean? It Means Take the Tests first appeared on College Admission Counseling.

As the Munchkins of Oz might have sung, “Ding Dong, The Wicked Subject Tests are Dead!”

But, as with the death of any reviled demon, the question remains, “what’s next”?

What will this mean for competitive students?  What will it mean for the elite colleges that have required them?  What will it mean for the College Board, the creators of the now-defunct demon?

It’s hard to predict every ramification of this change in the college admissions landscape.  However, tapping into the collective experience and expertise of the team at Great College Advice, we have come up with a list of “Good News and Bad News” to anticipate what is next.

We’d like to hope that College Admissions Land will become a more peaceful and tranquil place, now that the subject tests are gone.

And yet experience tells us there are unseen forces at work that could raise the specter of other, lesser demons that may gain more power and rise to terrorize aspirants to top colleges and universities.

So let’s have a peek.  Maybe things will get better.  Or maybe they won’t.  Either way, perhaps we can be prepared for whatever the future slings at us.

GOOD: Less stress for applicants (and their parents)

It’s wonderful that students will have one less standardized test to take in the college admissions process.  The respite from spending time strategizing which tests to take, preparing for those exams, and losing yet another Saturday morning worshipping the false idol that is the College Board will bring a great sigh of relief to students, parents, and college counselors everywhere.

GOOD: Less money spent on tutors for the SAT2 Subject Tests

The process of preparing and applying to college can be expensive, and the SAT Subject Tests have been one of the streams of cash leaving the pockets of parents and stuffing the pockets of the College Board.

GOOD: More colleges may become entirely test optional

Approximately 550 colleges and universities dropped testing requirements during the coronavirus pandemic.  About 1100 colleges and universities already were test optional.  As the testing organizations scrambled, some colleges have been learning how to evaluate applications without test scores, and we predict that at least half—perhaps more—of the newly test optional schools will remain test optional permanently.

GOOD: School counselors will not have to administer SAT2 Subject Tests on behalf of the College Board ever again

School counselors everywhere will celebrate that they no longer must give up their own Saturdays to proctor these tests.  However, these celebrations will be brief, as the same school counselors will still have to administer the “regular” SAT and ACT for a long time to come.

BAD: One fewer objective measure in the admissions process

While the SAT Subject Tests had dubious value in measuring the content knowledge of college applicants, they constituted one objective measure in the admissions process.  Test takers received a score.  A number.  Something that could be compared from one student to the next.  Never mind that the comparison didn’t really tell us much.  At least it was an objective indicator of something… something that admissions officers could use to separate the “good” applicants from the “bad” ones.

No one is happier to see these tests go than I, but their disappearance just makes the whole admissions process more subjective.  Colleges call this subjectivity “a holistic review,” which sounds much more humane.  Yet, whether you call it “subjective” or “holistic,” the process has very few objective guideposts—which leaves everyone scrambling to divine what it is colleges are really looking for.  When colleges say, “we look at it all,” what does that really mean?  How does a young person prepare for a holistic or subjective (or just plain opaque) review process?

BAD: Increased importance of the SAT and ACT tests themselves

With the extinction of SAT Subject Tests, the SAT and ACT will become even more important, especially for highly selective private universities and for flagship state universities.  Because GPAs are not consistent from district to district and school to school, and because curriculum offerings can also vary widely, using measures of “academic performance” and “academic rigor” remain pretty darned subjective.  It’s hard to compare apples to oranges.  So standardized tests are a handy (if imperfect) means to compare students in wildly divergent scholastic circumstances.

This is actually why the SAT (and then later, the ACT) were developed:  to give college admissions offices a tool to compare students against a norm of some kind.  Again, the tests are deeply flawed mechanisms to do so.  But since the United States has no nation-wide secondary school exit exam (as they do in almost every other country in the world), the colleges themselves had to invent something to help them at least attempt to level the playing field.  So don’t expect the SAT or ACT to go away.  Expect them to retain their place in college admissions, especially for state universities and elite private institutions.

GOOD: Less revenue to the College Board Death Star

The College Board bills itself as a public entity, preparing young people for higher education.  Whatever the mission printed on the website, or whether it uses a “.org” URL, or however the organization is legally constituted, the fact is that the College Board (like the ACT) is a business. Its not-for-profit tax status does not change its behavior:  the College Board is a rent-seeking organization propelled by capitalistic incentives.

The College Board made a business decision to eliminate the Subject Tests.  Fewer and fewer universities have been requiring them, and even some of the Ivies abandoned them in the past few years.  The profit margin on these tests became so small that it squeezed them out of existence.  In the absence of adequate demand, the College Board simply eliminated a product line.  It happens all the time in business (anyone want to buy my old Sony Walkman Betamax…please?).

Rest assured, the College Board itself is not going out of business:  the Death Star still shines.  The SAT is as healthy as ever, and it will be undergoing some new updates soon, including the long-awaited roll-out of its online version.  The College Board wants consumers and colleges to depend on them for making the admissions process both manageable and valuable, so they will do what they can to continue innovating, growing, and expanding—just as we would expect of any healthy business.

RIP, Subject Tests.  But Long Live the College Board!

BAD: Possible increase in importance of the AP tests (the Death Star pulls out its other weapon)

As the College Board kills one product line, we anticipate that it will focus on the strength of its other tried-and-true products.  In addition to its flagship exam, the Advanced Placement program is a wildly successful revenue stream.

The AP program takes advantage of one of the other peculiar features of the US educational system:  we have no common national curriculum.  Since we cannot compare students’ performance from state to state, district to district, and school to school because of the decentralized nature of our educational system, the private sector has stepped in to supply what the government has not:  a national, college preparatory curriculum.  The AP delivers the syllabi to schools and requires parents to pick up the tab for the examinations at nearly $100 a pop.

To reiterate, since the federal government does not develop and maintain a national curriculum, the incentives of capitalism do it for us.  In 2019, the College Board administered nearly 5.1 million Advanced Placement exams—up from 1.4 million in 2000.  That rate of increase would make any CEO swell with pride.  And this meteoric growth of the AP has helped swell the College Board’s cash reserves, which were estimated at $1.15 billion in 2018.

BAD: More high schools may feel compelled to offer Advanced Placement courses

High schools base their own success on two metrics:  the percentage of students who graduate with a high school diploma, and the percentage of students who go on to college.  Many will also tout the colleges and universities to which their students have been accepted (often you’ll see the roster of college acceptances on the high school’s website).

If high schools want to make their students competitive, then more may feel compelled to adopt the curriculum and administer the exams.

However, not every school will have the resources to be able to implement the Advanced Placement program.  Rural schools, in particular, may be unable to do so—they’re having enough trouble gassing up their buses, paying competitive salaries for highly qualified teachers, fixing the leaky roof, and paying the electric bill.  And some of the fancy private day and boarding schools will not need or want to offer the AP curriculum, preferring to offer their own boutique courses, such as “Gender and Power in Tudor England” (Philips Andover) or “Biological Oceanography” (The Cate School).

BAD: More students may feel compelled to self-study for the AP exams

Self-study!  Students can prep for the exams themselves, even if their schools do not offer these courses.  They can perhaps complete a dual enrollment course at their local community college or nearby university, and then take the AP exam.  They can hire a tutor to prep them for the course, and then pay for that AP exam.  Or they can just access free or low-cost materials to help themselves prepare.

My students from China do this all the time.  Kids in International Baccalaureate programs sometimes add Advanced Placement exams to their already full plate. And even kids who attend elite boarding schools like Philips Andover (including ones I have advised) will self-study for AP exams, even though their teachers and administrators, and even yours truly, beg them not to. (Incidentally, my student who did self-study for 3 AP exams, aced all three and was admitted to Harvard…so apparently the strategy works.)

The fact is that the demand for AP exams will continue to rise.  While the Subject Tests have gone the way of New Coke, the Edsel, and Pan Am Airways, the College Board’s Advanced Placement program is more like Amazon Prime.  If you could purchase stock shares in the College Board, I’d rate them a “buy.”

GOOD: Continued competition between the College Board and ACT on their signature tests

Capitalism creates and thrives on competition.  It is healthy.  It fuels innovation.  Fortunately, competition is alive and well in the college preparatory standardized test space.  The ACT and SAT are fighting tooth and nail for market share.  And in some ways, the elimination of the Subject Tests is part of the cycle of capitalistic decay and renewal.  ACT introduced the first online version of its signature test.  The SAT is moving to roll out its own online version (after an aborted attempt about a year ago).  Each company continues to tweak its test, presumably to make it a better measure of college readiness.

Whether or not these tweaks really are innovations, we can count on both organizations to serve their various clientele:  the colleges, the states that require their use as part of what used to be called “No Child Left Behind,” the schools that use their curricula, and the parents who pay for the exams.  Students, however, have little say in the matter.  Cogs in the machine.  Bricks in the wall.

Kind of depressing, actually.

But perhaps there is one bright spot, albeit a brief one:  Kids, you have one less set of exams to worry about.  Enjoy the feeling for as long as it lasts.

The post The Demise of the SAT2 Subject Tests: Good News or Bad News for College Admission? first appeared on College Admission Counseling.

The post Get Into the Best Colleges For You first appeared on College Admission Counseling.

TRANSCRIPT:
I’m here right now on the campus of Temple University in Philadelphia, and behind me is the library, there’s a big lawn over here, there are lots of kids hanging out, it’s a beautiful spring day just before finals, everybody’s relaxing. It’s also Friday, and so there are trucks lined up all up and down some of these avenues serving things like hoagies and wraps and crepes and there’s a “sugar bomb” truck or something. All kinds of places, getting ready for a Friday night here on some of the main drags. You can tell it’s kind of noisy, this is an urban environment so if you’re looking for a very active, fun, diverse campus in a city easily accessible by public transportation, this is a good place for you.

Great College Advice

The post Educational Consultant on Temple University: A Lively Atmosphere first appeared on College Admission Counseling.

Part of a series on Bates College.
Part 3 … Part 5

TRANSCRIPT:

Another thing that sets Bates apart from many of its competitor schools. If you will, is that the outdoors is an integral part of this campus. It is located in Maine, which is a beautiful state, and the outdoors is so much a part of what Mainers are really about. So you have the mountains and skiing that’s about an hour away, it’s really great, fantastic skiing. And then you have one of the most spectacular natural sea coasts in North America. So you’ve got plenty of outdoor opportunities.

Now keep in mind, of course, this is Maine, so there will be snow on the ground. It’s green and beautiful today in the summer. But there will be lots of snow on the ground so it’s winter sports. And Bates also has Division I skiing, including Nordic skiing so winter sports are really, really popular here.

So outdoor activities, if you’re interested in getting outside, going camping, going hiking, being part of the beautiful outdoors of America, Maine and Bates: you need to think about those.

Mark Montgomery
Expert Educational Consultant

The post Educational Consultant on Bates 4 of 5: An Outdoorsman’s College first appeared on College Admission Counseling.

TRANSCRIPT:

One of the other things that I found were interesting about Bates is the history matters. History matters with a lot of these colleges and Bates is very different from most of the other New England colleges in that it was set up by Free Will Baptists. And the Free Will Baptists were committed to ensuring that Bates was a campus that would be welcoming, not only to the local community and to America’s elite.

But also to women, so it was the first college in New England to accept women and also other minorities, including blacks. This was set up before the end of the Civil War, and from the very beginning they accepted freed slaves into the campus community.

So why does that matter? Well, it’s part of the ethos. It’s part of the way that Bates thinks about itself and presents itself and projects itself into the world, that this is a progressive learning community. It’s an intentional community that has always been diverse. That has always been accepting of people of every stripe, including every religious background, every socioeconomic class, every ethnic background.

So that is just one of the core principles at this college that does set apart a little bit. Everybody’s going to talk about how they’re into being welcoming and tolerant and accepting. And of course that’s part of the American reality today. But Bates has walked the walk from the beginning of its history whereas some of the Ivy League schools, well, all of the Ivy League schools. And many other elite small colleges in New England just didn’t begin that way. So that’s an important part of Bates’ history to keep in mind.

Mark Montgomery
Expert Educational Consultant

The post Educational Consultant on Bates 3 of 5: A Welcoming Community first appeared on College Admission Counseling.

Here’s the question submitted by a young man named Robert:

Hello!
I need you to do me a favor and give this to me straight without trying to make me feel good. I have a 2.0 GPA andthe 4th Quarter of my Junior year is about to start. I’ve taken my SAT once so far and got a 1600, I plan on taking it again. I really do want to go to college more than most people who have better grades than me do. Given my grades can I get into college? What acceptance rate should I stick near? Do you have any tips for me to help my college appeal? Please don’t try to soften it up for me I need to hear it honest and straight. 
Thanks, Robert

And here is my brief response. It hits him hard, but he wanted it “honest and straight.”
Very briefly, I can tell you that you will be able to get into college. There is always a college somewhere that will take your money, even if you have a terrible GPA.  

 However, you need to consider two things.

What do you think? Is this the advice you would give him? If not, how would you say it differently?

Mark Montgomery
Honest and Straight Educational Consultant

The post Bad Grades Can Still Get You Into College–At a Price first appeared on College Admission Counseling.

For those considering this early test strategy, here are some words of advice:  

Don’t do your standardized testing for college admissions on the early side unless you feel that you are truly ready.

While it is true that many colleges may give you a pass if you don’t score well in your sophomore year or even early in your junior year. And some schools will not require you to send in all (or any) of your test scores if you choose not to. Several of the more selective schools out there will want to see all of your scores for a given test. And will scrutinize your performance on all of them.

When it comes to standardized testing, most often, students will score better the further along they are in their high school careers.  It makes sense.  The older you are, the more you’ve learned, and the better you are likely to perform.

If you push yourself to take the test early, and you don’t do well, how will that make you feel?  For many students who have high expectations, not doing well on their first “official” standardized test can serve to demotivate. And add significant stress to all future testing.  As a student, it is important to try to understand what kind of an impact not scoring well will have on your psyche.  Are you the kind of kid who will shut down and believe that you are destined to have weaker test scores no matter what?  Or, will not doing well slide off of you and have little impact on any future performance?

I’m not insisting that a student shouldn’t take the SAT or ACT earlier than the norm.  Every student has to do what is right for him or her.  I’m only suggesting that students be sure that they are prepared. Feel ready to take the test, and have managed their own expectations about how they may perform.
Taking an SAT or ACT too early can have lasting effects on a students’ college admissions profiles and on their self-confidence.  So, before you decide to take that standardized test on the early side, be sure to ask yourself: “What’s the rush?”

Great College Advice
Westfield, NJ
 
 

The post How Early Should You Take the SAT or ACT? first appeared on College Admission Counseling.

One day, the two tests may virtually be the same, if the College Board’s recent announcement is any indication.  Earlier this week, College Board president David Coleman emailed the organization’s members, which include 6,000 high schools and colleges, to inform them that significant changes will be made to the SAT.  Although Coleman didn’t indicate the scope of the changes or the timeline on which they’ll occur, one can infer that, due to recent events, the test is likely to become more like its counterpart/competitor, the ACT.

Consider the following:

In 2011, for the first time in history, more students took the ACT than the SAT.  It used to be that the SAT was preferred by colleges on the East and West coasts, while the ACT was preferred by schools in the middle of the country.  Because of these preferences, the SAT was more popular with students in the East and West, while the ACT was more popular with everyone else.  It’s been several years since any college has had a preference for one test over the other, and as a result, the geographical divisions have subsided, and more students are taking both tests.

Another history lesson:

The ACT was designed as a curriculum-based test, meaning it’s intended to measure what students have learned in high school.  In contrast, the SAT was designed as an aptitude test that measures students’ ability/intelligence.  In 2005, the SAT was redesigned to be more curriculum-based, but it would appear that the ACT still wins in this area, as indicated by the fact that several states are using it as a statewide standardized test for high school juniors.  Only one state is using the SAT for this purpose.

Forty-six states and Washington, D.C. have adopted what are called the Common Core standards for K-12 education.  The ACT seized on this trend by releasing a publication in 2010 that explained how its test aligns with these standards.  In his email to College Board members, Coleman stated that the SAT needs to become better connected to the Common Core.  It’s important to note that, before joining the College Board, Coleman helped write the Common Core standards for English.

It will be interesting to see what happens with the SAT over the next few years.  While we can only speculate as to how it will change, one thing is certain: test prep companies probably are already groaning at the thought of having to rewrite their entire SAT prep curricula.

Great College Advice

The post College Board Will Make Changes to SAT first appeared on College Admission Counseling.

I know what you’re thinking: “Colleges want smart kids, and high test scores show colleges how smart I am.”  In actuality, standardized test scores don’t indicate how smart you are, but rather, how well you can take the test.  If the ACT and SAT were intelligence tests, people wouldn’t spend millions of dollars every year on test prep, because no sort of coaching can raise one’s IQ.  Yet, putting that aside, colleges don’t just want smart kids; they want kids who have the motivation and perseverance to succeed in a rigorous academic environment.  What best illustrates that?  Your transcript.

Colleges almost always are more willing to forgive average test scores if they’re combined with a stellar transcript, while outstanding test scores don’t often compensate for a poor transcript.  That being said, there are situations in which excellent test scores can give students with a so-so transcript the extra boost they need to be admitted.  If something happened in your life that caused your grades to drop, and you can explain those circumstances convincingly, submitting high test scores can serve as additional evidence that you are, in fact, capable of handling the demands of college.  However, low grades throughout high school are unlikely to be forgiven even if you get a perfect score on the ACT or SAT.

There also are those of you who say, “I’m smart, I’ve done really well in high school, but I’m just not a good test-taker.”  I’ll bet you wish you didn’t even have to take those silly standardized tests, right?  Well, you’re in luck, because more and more colleges are becoming “test-optional”.  This means exactly what it sounds like: including ACT and/or SAT scores in your application is optional.  You can submit your scores if you’d like, but if you choose not to, that won’t be held against you in the admissions process.   You can find a list of test-optional colleges (of which there are over 800) at www.fairtest.org.  While the growing number of test-optional colleges is great news for countless students, there is, unfortunately, one catch: at many of these colleges, you do have to provide test scores if you want to be considered for merit scholarships.

Bottom line: take high school seriously.  Take challenging courses, study hard, and get the best grades you can.  Don’t slack off and then put all of your eggs in the ACT/SAT basket, because when it comes time to apply to college, your test scores, no matter how impressive they are, are not going to make up for a lackluster transcript. 

The post The Story of Your College Application: Test Scores first appeared on College Admission Counseling.