Her Counselor Said Submit the Scores. I Said Don't.
Applying test optional and getting in test optional are two very different things.
That distinction has cost families more money than almost anything else I see, so let me give you the rule of thumb first and the story second.
Start here: admissions officers would rather see scores than not. The scores are useful to them. Test optional was sold as a way to level the field and widen access, and the honest read is that it did not really do that. Which is a big part of why these policies are less fashionable than they were a couple of years ago.
So my rule of thumb, based on where your kid falls in a given college's reported range.
Upper end of the range: submit. Easy call.
Middle of the range: I'd submit.
Between roughly the 25th and 50th percentile: be very, very careful. This is where I'd usually hold them back.
That last one is where I've had more polite disagreements with guidance counselors than anywhere else in this process.
Here's one of them.
A family came to me. Their daughter a...
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Registrants for tonight's live Q&A sesh on the SAT and ACT have already pre-submitted some good questions, among them:
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- Andy Lockwood
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