Test optional is a disaster

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The main people getting hurt with TO are the kids who are getting into colleges where they are not really prepared to do the work. I think the schools that have been TO longer, ie. pre- pandemic probably know what they are doing in terms of admissions with TO. I think some schools, not the top 10-20 schools but schools just below that ie. 20s- 40s may be accepting some test-optional students who are going to struggle academically. Also with covid, some of those same kids didn't get a great high school academic experience due to covid and again are not prepared for college-level academics. I would expect that the covid- effect will be resolved in the next 1-2 years but the TO thing may still be an issue.

Is there data to back this up?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The main people getting hurt with TO are the kids who are getting into colleges where they are not really prepared to do the work. I think the schools that have been TO longer, ie. pre- pandemic probably know what they are doing in terms of admissions with TO. I think some schools, not the top 10-20 schools but schools just below that ie. 20s- 40s may be accepting some test-optional students who are going to struggle academically. Also with covid, some of those same kids didn't get a great high school academic experience due to covid and again are not prepared for college-level academics. I would expect that the covid- effect will be resolved in the next 1-2 years but the TO thing may still be an issue.

Is there data to back this up?

Sure PP’s gut and intuition. Isn’t that enough data for you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The main people getting hurt with TO are the kids who are getting into colleges where they are not really prepared to do the work. I think the schools that have been TO longer, ie. pre- pandemic probably know what they are doing in terms of admissions with TO. I think some schools, not the top 10-20 schools but schools just below that ie. 20s- 40s may be accepting some test-optional students who are going to struggle academically. Also with covid, some of those same kids didn't get a great high school academic experience due to covid and again are not prepared for college-level academics. I would expect that the covid- effect will be resolved in the next 1-2 years but the TO thing may still be an issue.

Is there data to back this up?

Read the recent Selingo article on Test Optional.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My prediction is that starting with this year’s ED, kids with test scores are going to start winning more seats, particularly at selective schools.

This is already the case. Certainly was true for my class of '22 DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My prediction is that starting with this year’s ED, kids with test scores are going to start winning more seats, particularly at selective schools.

ED is about locking down your full payers. TO will make it easier to so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My prediction is that starting with this year’s ED, kids with test scores are going to start winning more seats, particularly at selective schools.

ED is about locking down your full payers. TO will make it easier to so.

Recruited athletes too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid scored 1590 on the first try. Also NMS We love that there are many candidates who go TO. It does not harm us or them.

You are naive. My child with a similar score got waitlisted for HYPSM last year. If it wasn't test optional, I'm fairly certain they would have been accepted. The school has a small waitlist, and some TO kids have been accepted instead of my kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid scored 1590 on the first try. Also NMS We love that there are many candidates who go TO. It does not harm us or them.

You are naive. My child with a similar score got waitlisted for HYPSM last year. If it wasn't test optional, I'm fairly certain they would have been accepted. The school has a small waitlist, and some TO kids have been accepted instead of my kid.

this just suggests you're an idiot.

[Anonymous]

HYPMS have been rejecting many kids with 1590s since I went to one 30 years ago. They could fill a whole class with those kids but never have

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid scored 1590 on the first try. Also NMS We love that there are many candidates who go TO. It does not harm us or them.

You are naive. My child with a similar score got waitlisted for HYPSM last year. If it wasn't test optional, I'm fairly certain they would have been accepted. The school has a small waitlist, and some TO kids have been accepted instead of my kid.

this just suggests you're an idiot.

I think you are the one who is idiot. The math is obvious. Small waitlist. Extremely high score waitlist, but TO accepted. If the test was mandatory some of those TO acceptances would have been rejected.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid scored 1590 on the first try. Also NMS We love that there are many candidates who go TO. It does not harm us or them.

You are naive. My child with a similar score got waitlisted for HYPSM last year. If it wasn't test optional, I'm fairly certain they would have been accepted. The school has a small waitlist, and some TO kids have been accepted instead of my kid.

Maybe those TO kids were more interesting, wrote a better application, had better recs, or overall seemed to be a better fit for the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid scored 1590 on the first try. Also NMS We love that there are many candidates who go TO. It does not harm us or them.

You are naive. My child with a similar score got waitlisted for HYPSM last year. If it wasn't test optional, I'm fairly certain they would have been accepted. The school has a small waitlist, and some TO kids have been accepted instead of my kid.

Maybe those TO kids were more interesting, wrote a better application, had better recs, or overall seemed to be a better fit for the school.

I'm not disputing they must have nice application, otherwise they would not have been accepted. But my kid also had a nice application, otherwise they would not be able to make it to a small waitlist. At the end, it is a number game. All I am saying, if TO acceptances revealed their scores, you would think SOME of those acceptances would become rejection. Why is this so hard to grasp

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid scored 1590 on the first try. Also NMS We love that there are many candidates who go TO. It does not harm us or them.

You are naive. My child with a similar score got waitlisted for HYPSM last year. If it wasn't test optional, I'm fairly certain they would have been accepted. The school has a small waitlist, and some TO kids have been accepted instead of my kid.

Maybe those TO kids were more interesting, wrote a better application, had better recs, or overall seemed to be a better fit for the school.

I'm not disputing they must have nice application, otherwise they would not have been accepted. But my kid also had a nice application, otherwise they would not be able to make it to a small waitlist. At the end, it is a number game. All I am saying, if TO acceptances revealed their scores, you would think SOME of those acceptances would become rejection. Why is this so hard to grasp

But you have no idea what is in their application. Maybe test score is the only reason your kid was in the pile and the ones that were accepted TO are better in every other way. That would make them more worthy even without a test score.

I get it that in this zero sum game you are looking for ways to eliminate the competition, so I understand your point that the TO kids wouldn’t even be in the pool so your kid would get in. But consider that the test score clearly doesn’t make your kid more worthy since they chose TO kids above yours. It’s just a different measure that they didn’t value. Of course you think the schools should value the measure that works in your favor (test scores). It’s human nature.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid scored 1590 on the first try. Also NMS We love that there are many candidates who go TO. It does not harm us or them.

You are naive. My child with a similar score got waitlisted for HYPSM last year. If it wasn't test optional, I'm fairly certain they would have been accepted. The school has a small waitlist, and some TO kids have been accepted instead of my kid.

Awwww. Poor thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid scored 1590 on the first try. Also NMS We love that there are many candidates who go TO. It does not harm us or them.

You are naive. My child with a similar score got waitlisted for HYPSM last year. If it wasn't test optional, I'm fairly certain they would have been accepted. The school has a small waitlist, and some TO kids have been accepted instead of my kid.

this just suggests you're an idiot.

I think you are the one who is idiot. The math is obvious. Small waitlist. Extremely high score waitlist, but TO accepted. If the test was mandatory some of those TO acceptances would have been rejected.

Good grief. If your kid was already on the waitlist they found 2000 kids they liked more than your kid. Saying you are fairly certain of anything in college admissions is what makes you dumb.