Education

Emma Camp | 1.28.2025 1:15 PM

A new working paper from Dartmouth College researchers is providing yet more evidence that test-optional college admissions ended up hurting the very disadvantaged students the policy change was meant to help. Instead of boosting the chances of low-income or first-generation students, researchers found that not sending in their scores dramatically reduced their chances of admission. 

"Under test score optional policies, less advantaged applicants who are high achieving submit test scores at too low a rate, significantly reducing their admissions chances; such applicants increase their admissions probability by a factor of 3.6x (from 2.9 percent to 10.2 percent) when they report their scores," reads the paper's abstract. "Much more than commonly understood, elite institutions interpret test scores in the context of background, and availability of test scores on an application can promote rather than hinder social........

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