Submitters are admitted at 1.2×–3.2× the rate of non‑submitters

Each bar is derived from that college's own published applicant‑ vs. admit‑submission shares — fully primary‑sourced, and mathematically independent of the overall admit rate.

Advantage = (admit‑submission share ÷ applicant‑submission share), relative to the same ratio for non‑submitters. Sources are linked in the table below. The gap partly reflects self‑selection (see caveat) — but it's consistent and large.

Spotlight · USC

Just 36% of applicants sent scores — but they were 51% of admits.

Watch the red band — score submitters — swell from barely a third of the applicant pool to over half of those admitted (USC, Class of 2028).

That's the 1.9× advantage made concrete — and USC's submitters landed in a ~1450–1550 SAT range. USC's own figures ↗

In the schools' own funnels, submitters punch above their weight

The cleanest tell: when a larger share of admitted students submitted scores than of applicants, scores are doing work. Straight from each college's own published data:

At Cornell's College of Arts & Sciences, submitters were just 24% of applicants — but 50% of admits and 62% of enrolled students. Cornell's own analysis (controlling for GPA) found submitting scores “significantly increases the likelihood of admission.”
CollegeApplicants submittedAdmits submittedSubmitter advantageCycle
Cornell University — Arts & Sciences
Cornell Office of Institutional Research & Planning ↗
24% 50% (62% of enrollees) 3.2× Fall 2023
University of Southern California
USC Undergraduate Admission Blog + Common Data Set 2024-25 ↗
36% 51% 1.9× Class of 2028
Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt Office of Undergraduate Admissions ↗
56.3% 61.1% 1.2× Class of 2025
University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame Admissions ↗
54% 70% 2.0× Class of 2026 (REA)

The honest caveat

Part of that gap is self‑selection: students with strong scores choose to send them, and they tend to be stronger applicants overall. The “testing advantage” is real but often over‑interpreted. What makes it matter is the evidence below — scores genuinely predict college success — which is exactly why the most selective schools are bringing tests back.

Scores predict success — high‑school GPA barely does

Opportunity Insights studied admissions records and first‑year grades across the Ivy‑Plus. Holding background constant, a higher SAT predicts a meaningfully higher college GPA — while high‑school GPA, compressed by grade inflation, predicts almost nothing.

Predicted increase in first‑year college GPA. Source: Opportunity Insights (Friedman, Sacerdote & Tine, 2024) ↗

~4×
SAT is roughly four times as predictive of college grades as high‑school GPA — grade inflation has flattened GPA's signal.
Students who entered with lower scores were about five times more likely to land in the bottom of their college class.
~1300
Test‑optional admits who withheld scores performed, on average, like students who had submitted around a 1300 SAT.
0 bias
Scores predicted success equally well across income and demographic groups — no calibration bias by background.

From the same Ivy‑Plus study of admissions records and first‑year grades. The "no‑score ≈ 1300" figure means readers were right to treat a withheld score cautiously.


Withholding a score usually means hiding a low one

A study of 47 universities found students who withheld scores sat near the 19th percentile of their college's scores (and a 3.22 first‑year GPA), vs. the 51th percentile (3.38 GPA) for submitters — so admissions readers increasingly assume a missing score is a below‑average one.

Avg. SAT percentile within the college. Source: Admissions Research Consortium study of 47 universities.

Why elite schools reinstated the requirement — in their own data

Opportunity Insights (Friedman, Sacerdote & Tine, 2024) source ↗
Among students with the same high-school grades and background, a 1600 SAT predicts a first-year college GPA about 0.43 points higher than a 1200. A 4.0 vs. 3.2 high-school GPA predicts less than 0.1 — “high-school GPA does little to predict academic success in college.”
Yale University (2024) source ↗
Scores are “the single greatest predictor of a student’s performance in Yale courses” — and test-optional applicants, especially from lower-income backgrounds, were less likely to be admitted.
Dartmouth College (2024) source ↗
A faculty study found scores predict success regardless of background — and that less-resourced students wrongly withheld scores (around 1400) that would have *helped* their admission.
UT-Austin (2024) source ↗
Score-submitters earned a first-semester GPA 0.86 points higher and were 55% less likely to post a GPA below 2.0 — a key reason UT reinstated its requirement.

The roster now requiring tests for some or all programs is growing:

Harvard Stanford MIT Yale Penn Caltech Johns Hopkins Brown Cornell Dartmouth Carnegie Mellon Georgetown UT-Austin Georgia Tech Purdue Ohio State Florida Georgia Miami Tennessee Florida State Cooper Union U.S. Service Academies

The UC system remains test‑blind — a separate policy choice. Compiled from the schools' own announcements.

Where does testing matter most?

Not every college weighs scores the same. A rough map by selectivity:

Admit rate ≤ ~10%
Where testing still matters most
Almost every applicant is qualified and almost every one is denied. Test-optional policies pushed rates even lower. A strong score is a way to stand out — and standing out is the whole game.
Selective, read supportively
Where testing can add value
Demand outstrips supply, so selection is careful but applications get a fair read. Scores have always mattered — but less than a sustained record of achievement. Strong scores help; they're rarely the deciding factor.
Accepts the majority
Where testing is a lower priority
Admission is largely a yes/no read on whether a student can succeed there. Decisions don't hinge on scores, and testing is likely to matter even less over time.

What score is competitive? — the bands at the most-applied-to schools

Required or not, admitted students cluster in a published range. A score below the band is a flag; moving into it is one of the most controllable parts of an application. Here are the five most-applied-to colleges in each selectivity tier — then search all 1,064 colleges ↓

Admit rate under 10% Hyper‑selective

Almost everyone is qualified and almost everyone is denied. A strong score is one of the few ways to stand out. Ranked hardest‑first among the ten most‑applied‑to.

#CollegeAdmit rateSAT (mid‑50%)ACT (mid‑50%)Enrolled who submitted
1 Harvard University · MA 3.5% 1500–1580 34–36 52% SAT · 22% ACT
2 Stanford University · CA 3.9% 1510–1580 34–35 47% SAT · 22% ACT
3 Columbia University in the City of New York · NY 4.2% 1490–1570 34–35 40% SAT · 21% ACT
4 Yale University · CT 4.5% 1500–1580 33–35 56% SAT · 26% ACT
5 Brown University · RI 5.2% 1500–1570 34–35 54% SAT · 22% ACT
6 Northeastern University · MA 5.6% 1460–1550 33–35 27% SAT · 8% ACT
7 University of Pennsylvania · PA 5.9% 1500–1570 34–35 51% SAT · 19% ACT
8 Northwestern University · IL 7.2% 1490–1560 33–35 50% SAT · 29% ACT
9 Cornell University · NY 8.2% 1480–1560 33–35 37% SAT · 12% ACT
10 New York University · NY 9.4% 1480–1570 33–35 27% SAT · 12% ACT
Admit rate 10–25% Highly selective

Demand far outstrips supply. A strong, in‑band score is a meaningful boost on top of a sustained record of achievement.

CollegeAdmit rateSAT (mid‑50%)ACT (mid‑50%)Enrolled who submitted
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor · MI 17.9% 1350–1530 31–34 52% SAT · 18% ACT
University of Southern California · CA 10.0% 1440–1550 32–35 32% SAT · 14% ACT
Boston University · MA 10.8% 1400–1520 32–34 28% SAT · 10% ACT
University of Florida · FL 24.0% 1300–1480 28–33 79% SAT · 41% ACT
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill · NC 18.7% 1370–1530 30–34 29% SAT · 34% ACT
University of Virginia-Main Campus · VA 16.9% 1410–1530 32–34 50% SAT · 16% ACT
Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus · GA 16.5% 1330–1530 28–34 77% SAT · 35% ACT
University of Miami · FL 18.5% 1330–1470 30–33 32% SAT · 21% ACT
Boston College · MA 15.7% 1430–1540 33–34 28% SAT · 16% ACT
Tufts University · MA 10.1% 1460–1550 33–35 36% SAT · 18% ACT
Admit rate 25–50% Selective — read supportively

Careful selection, but a fair read. Scores help land you in the range; they're rarely the single deciding factor.

CollegeAdmit rateSAT (mid‑50%)ACT (mid‑50%)Enrolled who submitted
Florida State University · FL 25.4% 1240–1390 27–31 66% SAT · 32% ACT
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign · IL 43.7% 1270–1510 29–34 47% SAT · 18% ACT
The University of Texas at Austin · TX 29.1% 1230–1490 27–33 63% SAT · 20% ACT
University of South Florida · FL 41.0% 1140–1330 24–29 75% SAT · 25% ACT
University of Wisconsin-Madison · WI 43.3% 1360–1510 28–32 14% SAT · 30% ACT
University of Central Florida · FL 39.5% 1190–1350 25–29 73% SAT · 27% ACT
Clemson University · SC 38.1% 1230–1390 28–32 39% SAT · 21% ACT
University of Maryland-College Park · MD 44.8% 1370–1520 32–35 42% SAT · 8% ACT
University of Pittsburgh-Pittsburgh Campus · PA 49.7% 1270–1450 29–33 41% SAT · 12% ACT
The University of Tennessee-Knoxville · TN 46.0% 1190–1340 25–31 28% SAT · 78% ACT
Admit rate 50%+ Accepts the majority

Largely a yes/no read on whether a student can succeed there. A score in the band confirms readiness.

CollegeAdmit rateSAT (mid‑50%)ACT (mid‑50%)Enrolled who submitted
Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus · PA 54.2% 1220–1400 27–32 33% SAT · 6% ACT
Purdue University-Main Campus · IN 50.3% 1190–1460 27–34 73% SAT · 23% ACT
Ohio State University-Main Campus · OH 50.8% 1330–1480 29–32 14% SAT · 35% ACT
Michigan State University · MI 83.9% 1150–1350 26–31 39% SAT · 7% ACT
The University of Alabama · AL 75.8% 1170–1400 24–31 18% SAT · 45% ACT
University of Arizona · AZ 85.7% 1160–1420 21–30 13% SAT · 22% ACT
University of Colorado Boulder · CO 83.3% 1230–1420 28–33 20% SAT · 8% ACT
Indiana University-Bloomington · IN 80.4% 1170–1400 27–32 41% SAT · 16% ACT
Texas A & M University-College Station · TX 63.2% 1140–1380 25–31 80% SAT · 20% ACT
University of Massachusetts-Amherst · MA 57.8% 1300–1480 29–33 27% SAT · 4% ACT

"Most applied to" = raw applicant volume. SAT/ACT bands are the 25th–75th percentile of enrolled submitters; composite SAT = EBRW + Math. Source: federal IPEDS Admissions, 2023. Test‑blind schools (e.g., the UCs) don't appear — they don't consider scores at all.

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