Research · Evidence roundup · November 2, 2026
Do test-optional policies change who enrolls? What the research shows
Test-optional policies may modestly widen access at some colleges, but the evidence is not causal and varies by college type. Here is what studies show.
Related data story: Test required, optional or blind: where four-year colleges stand
Test-optional policies are linked to modest gains in the share of underrepresented students at some colleges, but the evidence is uneven and mostly not causal. Test scores, meanwhile, still predict how students do once enrolled. This roundup is based on study abstracts and public metadata, not full papers.
What the research agrees on
The strongest design in this group, Untested Admissions (2022), looked at nearly 100 private institutions that adopted test-optional policies. It linked adoption to a 3% to 4% increase in Pell Grant recipients, a 10% to 12% increase in first-time students from underrepresented racial and ethnic backgrounds, and a 6% to 8% increase in first-time enrollment of women. The author describes these findings as showing both the potential and the limits of such policies.
Pandemic-era work points the same way, with more caveats. Test optional college admissions during the COVID-19 pandemic and campus diversity (2026) studied top-100 national universities. It found the White share of enrollees did not change, while Black enrollment rose by 1.1 percentage points in the second year. Exploring the Relationship between Test-Optional Admissions and Selectivity and Enrollment Outcomes during the Pandemic (2024) tied Black enrollment gains mostly to moderately selective colleges. At highly selective colleges, it found more applications but no consistent enrollment gains.
Test scores also keep their predictive value. Standardized Test Scores and Academic Performance at Ivy Plus Colleges (2025) found that students with top scores earned a first-year GPA 0.43 points higher than students with a 1200 SAT or 25 ACT.
Where it conflicts
Studies disagree on diversity. The Test-Optional Movement at America's Selective Liberal Arts Colleges (2014) found that policies, on average, raised perceived selectivity rather than diversity. The records do not explain the gap with the studies above. Differences in the colleges studied, the era and the method are all possible.
They also disagree on what predicts success. The Ivy Plus study found that high school GPA had little predictive power, while Contextualized High School Performance (2023) found that, in one Midwestern state, contextualized grades were more consistently tied to college success than contextualized test scores. Neither study is causal.
On student outcomes, Test-Optional Admissions Policies and Student Success Metrics (2026) found no significant overall change in retention or graduation. It reported small subgroup gains and losses of 2 percentage points, depending on selectivity and race.
How strong is the evidence
Moderate at best. No study is a field randomized trial. The one experiment, Voluntary Report of Standardized Test Scores: An Experimental Study (2025), was done in a laboratory. Its abstract does not describe the sample.
Most causal studies were rated "promising but limited" because colleges chose to adopt the policy themselves, and the assumption that they were on similar trends beforehand is untested. Near-universal adoption during the pandemic makes those studies harder to read. The Hispanic estimate in the 2026 pandemic study has a confidence interval that includes zero.
The two liberal arts college records appear to be the same study, so they may not count as independent evidence. The Ivy Plus results apply only to students who were admitted. Two studies are brand new with no citations yet. Only 12 of 42 tagged studies were shown for this review.
What this means for your family
Test-optional policies seem to modestly widen access at some colleges. They have not been shown to do so everywhere, and the effects differ by type of college.
Scores still predict college grades, so a strong score can help a student at a school where scores are considered. The Ivy Plus study found that students who were admitted without submitting scores had academic records equivalent to an SAT score of roughly 1300. That is a pattern among admitted students, not a rule about any one applicant.
Check each school's own policy and published data. Whether to submit a score is a school-by-school decision.
Studies we looked at
- Standardized Test Scores and Academic Performance at Ivy Plus Colleges (2025)
- Untested Admissions: Examining Changes in Application Behaviors and Student Demographics Under Test-Optional Policies (2022)
- The Test-Optional Movement at America's Selective Liberal Arts Colleges (2014)
- The Test-Optional Movement at America's Selective Liberal Arts Colleges: A Boon for Equity or Something Else? (2015)
- Assessment in American Higher Education: The Role of Admissions Tests (2019)
- Contextualized High School Performance (2023)
- Test-Optional Admissions Policies and Student Success Metrics (2026)
- Exploring the Relationship between Test-Optional Admissions and Selectivity and Enrollment Outcomes during the Pandemic (2024)
- Test optional college admissions during the COVID-19 pandemic and campus diversity (2026)
- Voluntary Report of Standardized Test Scores: An Experimental Study (2025)
