Pre-covid, 93% of universities required SAT scores. When covid hit, colleges were forced to “go test optional” because so many students had no access to testing. If 93% of schools found value in the test, why, 4 years later, are so many universities still test-optional? Did the tests become a worse predictor of success in college?

The short answer to the latter question is no. When a university no longer requires SAT or ACT scores for admissions, that school receives more applications. When a school receives more applications, but still has the same number of seats, that university appears to be more competitive. Would you rather go to a university that admits 25% of its applicants or to one that admits 75% of its applicants? Test-optional helps school maintain the image of exclusivity.

Test-optional policies also lend universities an air of prestige because students who have the bottom 50% of the average SAT and ACT scores do not submit their scores. This drives up the average SAT and ACT scores, further advancing the semblance of competitiveness. It is no secret that the most competitive schools in the country also have the biggest endowments. It seems that universities maintain test-optional status for business interests.

This is a bold statement. Might universities be test-optional in the interest of their students? To answer this question, we’ll look at UC Austin, a (rare) school that was forthcoming with their data that lead them to once again require SAT or ACT scores.

UC Austin found that those who submitted SAT scores were 55% less likely to be on academic probation. Submitters also had an average GPA .86 higher than those who did not submit scores. That’s the difference between a 2.4 (not far off from academic probation) and a 3.26 (a mix of As and Bs). It seems that testing is in the best interest of the university academically.