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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][mastodon][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Does it mean "Your test scores could help you but omitting them from your application won't hurt" or "admissions stuff presume that your scores were not good if you don't submit them and they will choose someone with decent/mediocre scores over someone who doesn't, all other things being equal"?

I may be skeptical, but I am starting to doubt the line given out by our school's counselors that[b] the scores only matter if they help you.  There's a negative deduction to be made there[/b].

Any views?[/quote]

That's a good way to put it. "Optional" doesn't mean all apps are considered equal. It just means your app will not be rejected because of missing test scores. Everyone knows kids with good/high test scores will definitely include them so, if it's missing, well, it creates more doubts in adcom's mind. Human nature. [/quote]

Maybe, but TO applicants ARE getting accepted. It's zero sum. [/quote]

Of course some are accepted w/o test scores. That really doesn’t prove anything though[/quote]

Proves that one can get accepted into selective colleges without test scores under test optional. Not submitting a SAT/ ACT is not a deal breaker. Unimaginable even 5 years ago. Yeah COVID accelerated the trend but TO is now pretty much a mainstay.[/quote]

I’d give it a few more years before making such a definitive statement.[/quote]

All 8 Ivies, Stanford, Northwestern, TO through 2024. Harvard through 2026. U of California test blind.

Ok - a few more years.

Catch the trend.[/quote]

2024 is next year.  Wait and see.[/quote]

NP: many schools are waiting on the Supreme Court decision regarding affirmative action to decide if they will continue TO. NY Times published an article today that sheds some light on the issue: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/15/us/affirmative-action-admissions-scotus.html[/quote]

From the article:

"Now “test optional” policies, which grew exponentially during the pandemic, are becoming the new normal. More than 1,800 four-year colleges say they do not require SAT or ACT scores. And the number of students taking the SAT dropped to 1.7 million in the high school class of 2022 from nearly 2.2 million in the class of 2020."

Let the "wait and see" group keep waiting...

[/quote]

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