Does applying with an ACT/SAT improve your admission chances?

This is a public service disclosure to 10th and 11th graders working on their admissions strategy for the next 2 cycles. No one has really done a great job analyzing admit data with regards to what kind of a boost applying with a test score gives. I'm submitting this to share. Most of the data is available from the college itself through various articles and websites however some data points were inferred because College ABC might only have the data point % who submitted verses and not % who was admitted and submitted. On average I found that there is a 10% differential between the 2 numbers. The big takeaway is that if a college was traditionally testing optional pre-COVID 19 like Bowdoin, Tulane, Haverford, the boost for applying with a test score is insignificant because they had in place staff and policies for 10+ years to process such test-opt. applications. If a college was an ultra-competitive stem school like Georgia Tech or Rice, the boost could be 50%-80%. I didn't include MIT because the data for RD is not available. For REA, they claimed that 93% submitted test scores so the boost was incredible. On the other hand, Caltech was test-blind so they didn't care whatsoever. And if UPenn was any indicator of how the Ivys treated tests, then I would conclude that applying to any of the 8 Ivys with a test score greatly boosted your chances. If you know similar data from other Top schools just add them in the comments and I'll add it to the list.

Column Descriptions as Follows:

School /% Applied w/Test/% Admitted w/Test/# Applications/# Admitted/Admit Rate/% Admitted w/Test/% Admitted w/o test/% Boost when appyling with Test Score

Amherst College 51% 63% 14000 1120 8.0% 10.1% 5.9% 26%

Boston College 58% 61% 39875 7536 18.9% 23.1% 14.7% 22%

Boston University 58% 63% 75733 13884 18.3% 23.1% 13.6% 26%

Bowdoin College 56% 61% 9325 822 8.8% 10.8% 6.9% 22%

Bucknell University 49% 62% 11252 3826 34.0% 42.2% 25.8% 24%

Colgate University 41% 60% 17533 3010 17.2% 20.6% 13.7% 20%

Duke University 56% 61% 49517 2854 5.8% 7.0% 4.5% 22%

Emory Univ (Main) 50% 69% 33385 4343 13.0% 18.0% 8.1% 38%

Fordham University 36% 42% 45000 26100 58.0% 48.7% 67.3% (-16%)

Georgetown Univ. 80% 90% 27650 3226 11.7% 21.0% 2.3% 80%

Georgia Tech Univ. 63% 79% 45357 8105 17.9% 28.2% 7.5% 58%

Haverford College 40% 50% 5336 950 17.8% 17.8% 17.8% 0%

Middlebury College 50% 60% 11908 1871 15.7% 18.9% 12.6% 20%

Pomona College 50% 57% 12000 745 6.2% 7.1% 5.3% 14%

Rice University 80% 90% 29523 2749 9.3% 16.8% 1.9% 80%

Swarthmore College 53% 63% 13000 1014 7.8% 9.8% 5.8% 26%

Tufts University 50% 60% 31190 3431 11.0% 13.2% 8.8% 20%

Tulane University 40% 50% 45517 4429 9.7% 9.7% 9.7% 0%

University of Georgia 50% 60% 39400 15350 39.0% 46.8% 31.2% 20%

Univ of Notre Dame 49% 51% 23639 3446 14.6% 14.9% 14.3% 2%

University of Penn 63% 76% 56333 3202 5.7% 8.6% 2.7% 52%

University of Virginia 58% 72% 48011 9875 20.6% 29.6% 11.5% 44%

Vanderbilt University 56.3% 61.1% 47174 3162 6.7% 8.2% 5.2% 22%

Villanova Uiniversity 50% 60% 24399 6100 25.0% 30.0% 20.0% 20%

Virginia Tech Univ 53% 60% 42084 26934 64.0% 76.8% 51.2% 20%

Wash Univ St. Louis 59% 69% 33634 4374 13.0% 17.9% 8.1% 38%

Wellesley College 40% 50% 7920 1267 16.0% 16.0% 16.0% 0%

Wesleyan Univeristy 59% 64% 13145 2544 19.4% 24.8% 13.9% 28%