@ProfDavidDeming @TheAtlantic At @Brown , @Dartmouth , and @Yale , test-optional cohorts have had, if anything, a higher share of incoming first-year students eligible for need-based aid, based on their own data reporting. So what’s the basis for the argument that test-optional “harms” low-income applicants?

@ProfDavidDeming @TheAtlantic @brown @dartmouth @Yale The evidence cited: under test-optional, there are “hundreds” of low-income applicants who hide what are in fact very good test scores. So if we forced them to reveal those test scores they’d get in right? Only if they continue to apply under a test-required regime.

@ProfDavidDeming @TheAtlantic @brown @dartmouth @Yale If you think your test scores are a liability for your application to an elite college, and the college forces you to reveal them, you might well decide not to apply. Elite colleges saw thousands upon thousands more applications when they went test-optional.

@ProfDavidDeming @TheAtlantic @brown @dartmouth @Yale Here’s another sentence you won’t read in @ProfDavidDeming ’s article: “In their quest to keep low-income enrollment numbers up, without the benefit of test scores, colleges took unreasonable chances on unqualified students.” Because, again, there’s no evidence this is true.

@ProfDavidDeming @TheAtlantic @brown @dartmouth @Yale (Note that in the above graph colleges post low 2nd year retention rates in the cohort that entered in fall 2019, for whom the 2nd year would be fall 2020, when many institutions offered only remote instruction.)

@ProfDavidDeming @TheAtlantic @brown @dartmouth @Yale It’s a fairly open secret: getting into Ivy League schools is hard. Staying in them is pretty easy. Look back at this @DLeonhardt chart, specifically that data point on the left. Students with a 1200 on the SAT who enroll in an elite college average a 3.0 GPA.

@ProfDavidDeming @TheAtlantic @brown @dartmouth @Yale @DLeonhardt Now, I get the counterargument "those 1200 SAT kids going to @Harvard have something else going for them that explains their 3.0 GPA." Thing is, though, that the data suggest that the "something else" isn't related to academics. It might be athletic ability, family wealth, etc.

@ProfDavidDeming @TheAtlantic @brown @dartmouth @Yale @DLeonhardt @Harvard So let me posit, then, that the typical 1200 SAT applicant can reasonably expect a 3.0 at an elite institution. Two points: 1) a 3.0 GPA is well above the threshold for worrisome academic performance. At most institutions academic probation kicks in when GPA dips below 2.0.

@ProfDavidDeming @TheAtlantic @brown @dartmouth @Yale @DLeonhardt @Harvard 2) a 1200 is not a particularly stratospheric SAT score. It would put you in the bottom quartile of students at @MarquetteU , a university with an 86% acceptance rate. It’s about the 75th percentile of the SAT distribution. So roughly 500,000 students/yr earn that score or higher.

@ProfDavidDeming @TheAtlantic @brown @dartmouth @Yale @DLeonhardt @Harvard @MarquetteU Any given year, a half million kids have what it takes to expect a 3.0 or better at an Ivy-caliber school. The Ivy League has seats for about 3% of them. The SAT would be a good tool to use if schools reserved those scarce seats for students with the highest predicted GPA...

@ProfDavidDeming @TheAtlantic @brown @dartmouth @Yale @DLeonhardt @Harvard @MarquetteU But the schools themselves repudiate that objective! IN @Harvard 's Federal trial over the use of race in admissions, documents revealed that the University considered 85% of applicants capable of handling the academic work. They do not seek to admit the "strongest applicants."

@ProfDavidDeming @TheAtlantic @brown @dartmouth @Yale @DLeonhardt @Harvard @MarquetteU Bottom line, the data demonstrate pretty clearly that test optional vs. test required is not really the key to putting an institutional thumb on the scale for low-income applicants. The key is putting an institutional thumb on the scale for low-income applicants.

@JakeVigdor Thank you for speaking up, Jake.

@JakeVigdor @ProfDavidDeming @TheAtlantic Let's not forget the students of color they claim they couldn't enroll in those (purple) test optional years.

@JakeVigdor @ProfDavidDeming @TheAtlantic Is there another country that students go to top colleges and high schools without testing? The only one I know was China during Cultural Revolution for the similar reason.

@JakeVigdor @ProfDavidDeming @TheAtlantic Maybe we avoid our Ivy-League fetishes altogether and not make Ed policy or Ed reporting based what this 0.1% of higher Ed decides to do.

@JakeVigdor @ProfDavidDeming @TheAtlantic Data @ our school doesn't support @ProfDavidDeming argument. Acceptance rates at U of IL (including to engineering and business school & computer science program) increased from 44% when test required to 65% when test optional-95% of our students are Pell eligible. @JakeVigdor