Curious if students who submit test scores to test-optional schools enjoy an advantage over students who don’t submit test scores? In the words of the gatekeepers at many highly selective institutions, students who don’t submit scores to test-optional schools enjoy no such advantage. 

Students Who Do Not Submit Test Scores Are At A Disadvantage

In fact, when we suggested in a piece in The Daily Pennsylvanian that, all else being equal, students with great scores do enjoy an advantage over students who don’t submit scores, we were attacked on the listserv of the National Association for College Admission Counseling, an organization to which we are a member. How dare we question the word of admissions officers! How dare we not accept what they say as the gospel! But accept it as the gospel we did not. After all, admissions officers at America’s elite universities once claimed not to have Jewish quotas. They sure did have Jewish quotas. 

And it’s not as though the untruths they espoused are chapters back in the history books. So many admissions officers still claim that legacy candidates enjoy a negligible advantage. So many claim to not factor in a student’s family’s ability to pay full tuition. So many claim not to discriminate against Asian American applicants. Read the transcript of the Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard University trial. The truth came out. Which all leads us to…has the truth yet come out on whether or not students with test scores enjoy no advantage over students who don’t submit scores?

The Truth Has Come Out on Test-Optional Admissions

Yes, the truth has indeed come out — boy has it ever! Here’s the truth, in the language released by the schools

Test Score Opting-In At Top National Universities

College / University	2026 US News Rank (“Best National Universities”)	Admission Rate for Students Who Submitted Test Scores	Percentage of Applicants Who Did Not Submit Test Scores
Princeton University	#1	Not Published	56% (SAT) 21% (ACT)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology	#2	Not Published	83% (SAT) 29% (ACT)
Harvard University	#3	Not Published	54% (SAT) 19% (ACT)
Stanford University	#4	Not Published	50% (SAT) 19% (ACT)
Yale University	#4	Not Published	61% (SAT) 25% (ACT)
University of Chicago	#6	Not Published	49% (SAT) 27% (ACT)
Duke University	#7	Not Published	48% (SAT) 30% (ACT)
Johns Hopkins University	#7	Not Published	50% (SAT) 18% (ACT)
Northwestern University	#7	Not Published	46% (SAT) 23% (ACT)
University of Pennsylvania	#7	Not Published	50% (SAT) 17% (ACT)
California Institute of Technology	#11	Not Published	Not Published
Cornell University	#12	Not Published	45% (SAT) 15% (ACT)
Brown University	#13	Not Published	61% (SAT) 24% (ACT)
Dartmouth College	#13	Not Published	Not Published
Columbia University	#15	Not Published	44% (SAT) 17% (ACT)
University of California, Berkeley	#15	Test Free	Test Free
Rice University	#17	Not Published	48% (SAT) 22% (ACT)
University of California, Los Angeles	#17	Test Free	Test Free
Vanderbilt University	#17	61.1 % of admitted students applied with test scores	24% (SAT) 25% (ACT)
Carnegie Mellon University	#20	Not Published	53% (SAT) 22% (ACT)
University of Michigan – Ann Arbor	#20	Not Published	51% (SAT) 18% (ACT)
University of Notre Dame	#20	Not Published	30% of admitted students to the Class of 2026 did not have test scores
Washington University in St. Louis	#20	Not Published	29% (SAT) 28% (ACT)
Emory University	#24	69% of admitted students did submit scores	43% (SAT) 20% (ACT)
Georgetown University	#24	10.8% of Early Action admits who submitted scores earned admission	7.34% of Early Action admits who did not submit scores earned admission

Test Score Opting-In At Top Liberal Arts Colleges

College / University	2026 US News Rank (“Best National Universities”)	Admission Rate for Students Who Submitted Test Scores	Percentage of Applicants Who Did Not Submit Test Scores
Williams College	#1	Not Published	35% (SAT) 17% (ACT)
Amherst College	#2	Not Published	39% (SAT) 22% (ACT)
Swarthmore College	#4	Not Published	39% (SAT) 16% (ACT)
Bowdoin College	#5	Not Published	31% (SAT) 17% (ACT)
Claremont McKenna College	#7	Not Published	34% (SAT) 14% (ACT)
Pomona College	#7	57% of newly admitted students submitted a standardized test score	36% (SAT) 14% (ACT)
Wellesley College	#7	Not Published	43% (SAT) 18% (ACT)
Carleton College	#10	Not Published	34% (SAT) 25% (ACT)
Harvey Mudd College	#10	Not Published	55% (SAT) 21% (ACT)
Barnard College	#13	Not Published	35% (SAT) 15% (ACT)
Davidson College	#13	Not Published	28% (SAT) 23% (ACT)
Grinnell College	#13	Not Published	29% (SAT) 21% (ACT)
Hamilton College	#13	Not Published	34% (SAT) 16% (ACT)
Middlebury College	#13	Not Published	28% (SAT) 18% (ACT)
Smith College	#13	Not Published	29% (SAT) 14% (ACT)
Vassar College	#13	Not Published	31% (SAT) 12% (ACT)
Wesleyan University	#13	59% of admits asked to have test scores considered in the admission process	41% (SAT) 17% (ACT)
Washington and Lee University	#21	Not Published	24% (SAT) 20% (ACT)
Colgate University	#23	Not Published	23% (SAT) 14% (ACT)
University of Richmond	#23	Not Published	19% (SAT) 14% (ACT)
Bates College	#24	Not Published	15% (SAT) 5% (ACT)
Colby College	#24	Not Published	Not Published
Haverford College	#24	Not Published	39% (SAT) 17% (ACT)

Most Elite Colleges Are Concealing Data on the Percentage of Students Who Got In With and Without Scores

Despite the best efforts of our prying eyes, most highly selective universities are cryptically — and unsurprisingly — not releasing the percentage of students admitted with and without scores. As an example, Duke University once bragged that 44% of applicants didn’t submit test scores but the school didn’t release the all-important figure of the percentage of students admitted without test scores. Of the few elite universities that have released such data — you’ll note most don’t include such pertinent information in their press releases about their incoming classes at least as of the time of this publication — the numbers point to the significant advantage students with test scores enjoy in admissions. 

As an example, at the University of Pennsylvania, about 66% of Early Decision applicants to its Class of 2025 submitted test scores (which also happened to be the last year the school reported such data). And about 75% of Early Decision applicants who earned admission submitted test scores. So students who submitted test scores to UPenn this past Early Decision cycle held a statistically significant advantage in the admissions process over those who did not. As another example, at Georgetown University, 7.34% of Early Action applicants to the Class of 2025 who did not submit test scores earned admission. This compares to Georgetown’s 10.8% overall Early Action admit rate for the Class of 2025. Georgetown, of course, now mandates the submission of test scores.

Note the Freudian Slips of Admissions Officers on the Topic of Test-Optional Admissions to Press Outlets

And if you don’t think the numbers tell the story, take a look at some of the Freudian slips admissions leaders have made to press outlets, highlighted by the gem Cornell University’s Vice Provost for Enrollment Jonathan Burdick offered to The New York Times. In a piece entitled “Interest Surges in Top Colleges, While Struggling Ones Scrape for Applicants,” Amelia Nierenberg writes, “Prestigious universities like Cornell never have a hard time attracting students. But this year, the admissions office in Ithaca, N.Y., is swimming in 17,000 more applications than it has ever received before, driven mostly by the school’s decision not to require standardized test scores during the coronavirus pandemic. “We saw people that thought ’I would never get into Cornell’ thinking, ‘Oh, if they’re not looking at a test score, maybe I’ve actually got a chance,’” said Jonathan Burdick, Cornell’s vice provost for enrollment.” 

Oh, Mr. Burdick, who ever would have given these applicants the crazy idea that they had an equal chance of admission without test scores? Yet it’s not like Mr. Burdick is the only admissions leader with loose lips. In a CNN piece by Yon Pomrenze and Bianna Golodryga entitled “College applications in pandemic year show deepening inequities in access to higher education,” NYU’s admissions leader offers a most interesting quote. As CNN reports, “’You might find more students applying to an Ivy League or a school like NYU because they feel like they have a chance (now that test scores are optional),’ says MJ Knoll-Finn, senior vice president for Enrollment Management at New York University.