Test optional success stories 2025

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:From that podcast!

“Okay. I'll tell you what else they're not going to want to get rid of. You know, the poor kid from Appalachia who's white, who has a terrible test score compared to the national averages, but is actually a really good test score in his context.

I've said this before on the podcast. Talking with the Yale Admission Officer, Senior Person, if I can get a 31 out of Appalachia, like I'll do a cartwheel. Like that's probably the high score they've had in five years.

They're going to somehow defend and support that, and they're going to make it all about race. And I just think there's so much evidence. So I was like, well, how can you be so opinionate?”

From Your College Bound Kid | Admission Tips, Admission Trends & Admission Interviews: Brown and Columbia Share Race & Admissions Stats In Trump Deal, Aug 27, 2025

Why should poor kids get affirmative action? It's not like an upper middle class or middle class kid can choose where they were born and they're still not overly wealthy. Why are some kinds of preference (legacy, sports, lower income, gender) still allowed but not race. No one wants to go to school in a college that's homogenous racially. PWIs get a bad rap.

[Anonymous]

I don’t think Brown will got back to test-optional. They have been very clear it is a predictor, but also that they look at it in context. With open curriculum they are looking for serious students that will thrive with flexibility.

[Anonymous]

The prediction is that more schools will reinstate test required in the next cycle or two. Even at lacs, they are considering this now. Swarthmore and Williams may be next in line.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In today’s your college-bound kid podcast talking about the deal that Brown and Columbia struck with the Trump administration, there’s an argument to be made that some colleges should remain test optional and encourage students openly not to submit test scores because it gives universities more leeway in shaping the class, the way they want them to? Really interesting conversation in the roundtable.

“And one wonders, I think one of the questions that people are, people should be asking is that if you move away from test optional, which the universities, some really selective universities have been doing, then they leave themselves open to pressure from the Trump administration to release those numbers because now everyone's required to do them. Right now, Columbia about, well, I don't know if it was for this past year, but in 2024, about 60% of their admitted students submitted their test score. When you're test optional, you have the opportunity to look at other factors that are important.

And Brown is saying that if you're really far away from the average, or the mid-50%, there has to be some compelling evidence to take you because that is an important factor. I think the other thing that you're starting to see is that you're starting to see this push into admission at other selective university processes. You've seen even the Trump administration really go after specific targets, highly selective colleges that are really prominent in the Ivy League, and then a consistent battering of cities and universities in California.

Stanford, University of California, UCLA, Berkeley, and Irvine[…]”

From Your College Bound Kid | Admission Tips, Admission Trends & Admission Interviews: Brown and Columbia Share Race & Admissions Stats In Trump Deal, Aug 27, 2025

My spouse works at a school that hasn’t yet been under the Trump microscope but is a T20.. They are cutting all DEI in admissions, there is even pressure to get rid of surrogates for race like “rural” or “pell eligible.” No one wants to be the next to have all their research money frozen.

[Anonymous]

What with the administration do if 90% of Asian accepted students submit scores with an average of 1550 but 70% of white accepted students submit scores with an average of 1520 and 60% of African American students submit scores with an average of 1510? Will the school get in trouble?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What with the administration do if 90% of Asian accepted students submit scores with an average of 1550 but 70% of white accepted students submit scores with an average of 1520 and 60% of African American students submit scores with an average of 1510? Will the school get in trouble?

Yes bc the school wants to increase whites and decrease all else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In today’s your college-bound kid podcast talking about the deal that Brown and Columbia struck with the Trump administration, there’s an argument to be made that some colleges should remain test optional and encourage students openly not to submit test scores because it gives universities more leeway in shaping the class, the way they want them to? Really interesting conversation in the roundtable.

“And one wonders, I think one of the questions that people are, people should be asking is that if you move away from test optional, which the universities, some really selective universities have been doing, then they leave themselves open to pressure from the Trump administration to release those numbers because now everyone's required to do them. Right now, Columbia about, well, I don't know if it was for this past year, but in 2024, about 60% of their admitted students submitted their test score. When you're test optional, you have the opportunity to look at other factors that are important.

And Brown is saying that if you're really far away from the average, or the mid-50%, there has to be some compelling evidence to take you because that is an important factor. I think the other thing that you're starting to see is that you're starting to see this push into admission at other selective university processes. You've seen even the Trump administration really go after specific targets, highly selective colleges that are really prominent in the Ivy League, and then a consistent battering of cities and universities in California.

Stanford, University of California, UCLA, Berkeley, and Irvine[…]”

From Your College Bound Kid | Admission Tips, Admission Trends & Admission Interviews: Brown and Columbia Share Race & Admissions Stats In Trump Deal, Aug 27, 2025

My spouse works at a school that hasn’t yet been under the Trump microscope but is a T20.. They are cutting all DEI in admissions, there is even pressure to get rid of surrogates for race like “rural” or “pell eligible.” No one wants to be the next to have all their research money frozen.

You can be "diverse" and not have DEI. Think about diversity differently. They want urban kids, rural kids, kids from GA and kids from HI. Kids from MT and CA. That's not DEI but that's diversity.
They want kids who start urban gardening programming for food insecurity and kids who work on farms in KY.
They want kids who raise goats, who show horses and who walk dogs for extra money. That's diversity.

Don't think about diversity with a racial lens. Its about what you do, the activities and experiences that make you YOU. Don't think about race AT ALL.

[Anonymous]

TO OOS W&M RD

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The prediction is that more schools will reinstate test required in the next cycle or two. Even at lacs, they are considering this now. Swarthmore and Williams may be next in line.

That was pre-Trump. Now with him cracking down on admissions, I think many will stick to Test Optional.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The prediction is that more schools will reinstate test required in the next cycle or two. Even at lacs, they are considering this now. Swarthmore and Williams may be next in line.

That was pre-Trump. Now with him cracking down on admissions, I think many will stick to Test Optional.

exactly. thanks to trump acting like big brother TO is here to stay. that is what will save UCs. there's no data outside of gpa to compare, it's all vibes.

[Anonymous]

Agree TO is definitely here to stay at many schools now. They will all discourage folks to submit scores if they aren’t 34+/1520+.

[Anonymous]

I don’t know if folks are drinking cool aids. Six out of eight ivies are test required. Princeton is de facto test required. Columbia is the only one left.

[Anonymous]

TO is over and its completely wishful thinking otherwise. Once the data is released that URM students are more TO than White and Asian students its a wrap.

[Anonymous]

My DC who has a test score of 770 TOTAL (she’s a horrible test taker. Took it once with zero preparation) on the SAT was going to apply to Brown. She thought maybe a miracle would happen. Should she even bother now with the Trump scrutiny?.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:TO is over and its completely wishful thinking otherwise. Once the data is released that URM students are more TO than White and Asian students its a wrap.

That’s your opinion but I tend to disagree. The government can’t mandate that a school has to consider standardized test score as requirement for admission. And even if they tried, any reasonable court of law (even our gerrymandered Supreme Court) would quickly overrule it.