Politico reported this morning that the 30 colleges and universities that dropped the SAT and ACT this year have seen an increase in applications, especially among minority and low-income students. There are now more than 850 “test-optional” institutions of higher education.
FEWER TESTS, MORE APPLICANTS: After a wave of more than 30 colleges and universities decided to make SAT and ACT tests optional for applicants last year [http://politico.pro/1TnyJl5 ], a number of those institutions are seeing an uptick in applications. Though officials at several colleges cautioned that they can’t attribute the growth in interest to test-optional policies alone, some universities think it could be helping, especially when it comes to increasing the number of applicants from minority and low-income backgrounds. George Washington University announced a test-optional policy last summer, and has reported a 28 percent increase in applications, with 20 percent of applicants opting not to submit scores. The school also said it has also seen an increase in minority applicants and first-generation students. The Washington Post has more about GW: http://wapo.st/1nLjJDn.
– Kalamazoo College, which announced a test-optional policy last spring, had seen a 51 percent increase in applications as of Feb. 2. And applications from domestic students of color have risen 50 percent compared to last year, the college said. Kalamazoo also recently hired a consulting firm to help expand its applicant pool, and installed new technology to help staff track and communicate with prospective students.
– The University of Puget Sound, in Tacoma, Wash., has seen a 10 percent increase in applicants since announcing a test-optional policy last June. The school has also had a 20 percent increase in applicants from underrepresented minorities, 23 percent of whom applied without test scores. “I can’t draw a definitive link, but our test optional policy may have contributed to that increase,” said Jenny Rickard, vice president of enrollment. Puget Sound also launched an initiative with local public schools to provide full financial aid to Tacoma students, and to first-generation students who participated in a special college access programs.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
We always knew that education venture “philanthropy” wouldn’t, really, be about opportunity. Look at the abysmal employee pay, in the discount retail business, the alleged suppression of software engineer pay, in Silicon Valley and, the fleecing of Main Street by Wall Street.
Rejection of the tests, that benefit the unproductive, like the financial sector, and the useless, like the creators of techno gadget, “bells and whistles” , may be a positive outcome from the war that the richest 0.1% declared against America.
Not surprising to hear this at all. And I’m certain this positive trend has also increased the quality, as well as the quantity of applicants to my alma mater, Hampshire College, in Amherst, Massachusetts.
Hampshire, with a very small student body of roughly 1300 undergraduates has produced graduates such as the documentary filmmaker, Ken Burns, Stonyfield Farms founder, Gary Hirshberg, author Jon Krakauer, 2014 Best Supporting Actress, Lupita Nyong’o, Pulitzer Prize-winner, Edward Humes and many other notables in every field and profession.
Hampshire’s highly-regarded “Summer Studies in Mathematics Program” has been the nation’s premier pre-college program for gifted math students from around the country, with alumni like Lisa Randall, professor of theoretical physics at Harvard and Eric Lander, professor of biology at MIT and science advisor to President Barack Obama.
Hampshire College was the first post-secondary school in the country to divest from South
Africa’s horrific apartheid regime—just before Stanford and the University of Massachusetts, way back in 1980, and has never required the submission of standardized test scores since it opened its doors to its first applicants in 1970.
I’m happy to see a significant portion of US colleges finally following Hampshire’s lead here. And thanks for allowing me to go on at length—with sincere pride and genuine affection—about the role Hampshire College has played, and is playing, in challenging the conventional wisdom that all too many US colleges have remained mired in for much too long.
Thanks!
Hampshire College took a principled stand, in 2015, against the Dept. of Ed.’s recently created College Scorecard.
It is my hope that universities and colleges across the nation, will demand that their accrediting bodies and the Dept. of Ed., meaningfully, address strings-attached grants from oligarchs, to higher education. An organization like UnKochMyCampus.org would
have been unnecessary, if the academy itself, had safeguards.
When a post at Philanthropy Roundtable states, “…reformers…declared, ‘we’ve got to blow up the ed. schools’ ” a major threat to democracy is evident.
It is really good to hear that some colleges are not going to require the ACT and SAT anymore. I do not feel that these tests are able to capture what kind of student someone is. Especially because these scores are a reflection of ONE day. Also these tests put many at a disadvantage due to the crazy amounts of money required to score well on these tests. Parents hire tutors, enroll their students in prep classes, and buy study books for their children, while some students may not even be able to pay the registration fee. These tests are not giving everyone an equal chance.