The Big Tests: Test-Optional Schools

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Since the early 1980s, a small but gradually growing number of selective colleges no longer require any standardized tests, either the SAT or the ACT. Bates College was the first, followed by Bowdoin College, and now there are about forty of them, mostly small liberal arts colleges in the Northeast with strong academic reputations. These now include Smith College, Mount Holyoke College, College of the Holy Cross, Lawrence University, and Bard College. Recently, the first major research university, Wake Forest University, joined them. At all of these colleges, you can choose to submit test scores or not. You can submit your scores to some of them, but not others, if you prefer. It is still in your interest to do so if you have scores higher than the average for these schools, but the schools promise not to discriminate against you if you don’t, and they say they will not assume you have low test scores if you don’t submit.

Bates College has the longest history of being test-optional. Only minor differences in academic performance were found in a study Bates conducted after twenty years. They saw no reason to change their policy. One college, Sarah Lawrence College, refuses to look at test scores at all. You cannot submit them even if you want to.

Unless you are philosophically opposed to taking standardized tests or know that you are just a poor test taker, it is unlikely that you will apply only to test-optional colleges, though there are now enough such colleges that it is a feasible strategy. So you will probably end up taking tests like everyone else, waiting to see what your scores are, and then deciding where to submit them. A list of test-optional colleges can be found at www.fairtest.org. Be sure to check individual college Web sites to confirm specific details and to check for updates. This is an area where changes happen quickly.

Standardized Tests at a Glance