“You have to bring something special to the table if you are test optional.”

Agree with PP above. It may be TO, but you have to excel on all other parts of the application to be admitted.
Lots of smart kids at Vandy

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This whole thread reeks of cope. Vanderbilt is a top ten school in this country, and it looks like many on this thread will be living in the past.

It’s quite literally not. They love the applications as everyone has said so they can look extra exclusive. They get the added ding that they actually admit a lot of TO.

All of that is fine, it’s a great school, but acting like it’s an Ivy with their qualifications is false. It offers strong academics, warm weather, sports, fun location. It makes a lot of sense for a lot of kids.

Who is acting like its an ivy? My kid applied precisely because it was not? Also applied test optional and got in this year along with one T10 and two other T 25s.

Test optional is indeed alive and well. Once the hysteria of this cycle dies down, someone should do a deep dive. TO success highly corresponds to major and having other compelling metrics - including national level awards. You have to bring something special to the table if you are test optional.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Test optional

True. But so is Stanford, Duke, Princeton, Columbia, Penn and most of the other top 20 schools. Among the schools that went to test mandatory, it only bumped up the acceptance rate by a point or two. Whether an acceptance rate is 4 percent or 6 percent doesn't make much difference. It's still a ridiculously low acceptance rate.

Stanford wasn't test optional this year. Neither was Penn.

Stanford was this year. Not next.

Vanderbilt has over 60% of accepted students submitting scores. But it is correct that about 50% of ENROLLING students (which is what is reported on CDS, the students who matriculate) go TO. So you are more likely to get accepted with test scores, but the students who enroll are equally test submitting and TO. The enrolled class of almost any school is going to have lower stats than the full pool of accepted students.