Test-Optional vs. Test-Blind Colleges: What’s the Difference?
What’s Covered:
- What Do “Test-Optional” and “Test-Blind” Mean?
- Top 20 List of Test-Optional Universities for 2020-2021
- Top 10 List of Test-Optional Liberal Arts Colleges for 2022-2023
- Top 10 List of Test-Blind Schools for 2022-2023
- How Do Test-Optional/Test-Blind Policies Affect My Chances of Admission?
While taking the SAT or ACT used to be a necessity for any college applicant, more universities have been reconsidering the role of standardized testing in recent years. The COVID-19 pandemic caused many testing days to be canceled, and debates over the effectiveness and fairness of standardized tests have become more prevalent.
In response to this, many colleges have embraced test-optional admissions policies, including top colleges such as the Ivy League schools. To avoid any confusion in the admissions process, it’s important to know what exactly a test-optional school is — and how it differs from a test-blind college.
In this post, we’ll be explaining the difference between test-optional and test-blind, and what these policies mean for students.
What Do “Test-Optional” and “Test-Blind” Mean?
Test-optional schools allow applicants to choose whether or not to submit SAT or ACT scores as a part of their application. While choosing not to submit a test score does not harm an applicant, submitting a high test score can give an applicant a boost in the admissions process.
Test-blind schools, on the other hand, do not consider test scores in any case. Even perfect scores of 1600 on the SAT or 36 on the ACT will not give an applicant any admissions advantage. There are not too many colleges that are test-blind, and most of the policy changes have only happened recently — Caltech, for example, went test-blind in Fall 2020.
Top 20 List of Test-Optional Universities for 2020-2021
Below is a list of the top 20 schools with test-optional admissions for the 2022-2023 cycle based on CollegeVine’s national rankings (apply the test-optional filter to your list).
|
School Name |
CollegeVine National Ranking |
Location |
|
Stanford University |
1 |
Stanford, CA |
|
Harvard University |
2 |
Cambridge, MA |
|
Yale University |
3 |
New Haven, CT |
|
Princeton University |
4 |
Princeton, NJ |
|
MIT |
5 |
Cambridge, MA |
|
Duke University |
6 |
Durham, NC |
|
UChicago |
7 |
Chicago, IL |
|
UPenn |
8 |
Philadelphia, PA |
|
Brown University |
9 |
Providence, RI |
|
Olin College of Engineering |
11 |
Needham, MA |
|
Dartmouth College |
12 |
Hanover, NH |
|
Northwestern University |
13 |
Evanston, IL |
|
Cornell University |
14 |
Ithaca, NY |
|
Columbia University |
15 |
New York, NY |
|
Rice University |
16 |
Houston, TX |
|
Vanderbilt University |
18 |
Nashville, TN |
|
Johns Hopkins University |
21 |
Baltimore, MD |
|
University of Notre Dame |
22 |
Notre Dame, IN |
|
WashU |
23 |
Saint Louis, MO |
|
University of Southern California |
27 |
Los Angeles, CA |
Top 10 List of Test-Optional Liberal Arts Colleges for 2022-2023
Below is a list of the top 10 schools with test-optional admissions for the 2022-2023 cycle based on CollegeVine’s national rankings (apply the test-optional and liberal arts college filters to your list)
|
School Name |
CollegeVine National Ranking |
Location |
|
Williams College |
17 |
Williamstown, MA |
|
Pomona College |
19 |
Claremont, CA |
|
Bowdoin College |
20 |
Brunswick, ME |
|
Amherst College |
24 |
Amherst, MA |
|
Wellesley College |
25 |
Wellesley, MA |
|
Claremont McKenna College |
26 |
Claremont, CA |
|
Swarthmore College |
29 |
Swarthmore, PA |
|
Middlebury College |
32 |
Middlebury, VT |
|
Washington and Lee University |
33 |
Lexington, VA |
|
Haverford College |
34 |
Haverford, PA |
Stay up to date as colleges and universities continue to shift and revise their admissions policies with CollegeVine. Our school hub lets you search colleges by all types of factors, including their test policies.
Top 10 List of Test-Blind Schools for 2022-2023
Below is a list of the top 10 schools with test-blind admissions for the 2022-2023 cycle based on CollegeVine’s national rankings (apply the SAT/ACT test policy; “not used” filter to your list)
|
School Name |
CollegeVine National Ranking |
Location |
|
California Institute of Technology |
10 |
Pasadena, CA |
|
UC Berkeley |
54 |
Berkeley, CA |
|
UCLA |
55 |
Los Angeles, CA |
|
Pitzer College |
87 |
Claremont, CA |
|
UCSD |
99 |
San Diego, CA |
|
Dickinson College |
100 |
Carlisle, PA |
|
UC Irvine |
112 |
Irvine, CA |
|
Worcester Polytechnic Institute |
118 |
Worcester, MA |
|
Reed College |
122 |
Portland, OR |
|
UC Davis |
128 |
Davis, CA |
|
California Polytechnic State University |
132 |
Chico, CA |
How Do Test-Optional/Test-Blind Policies Affect My Chances of Admission?
Colleges with both test-optional and test-blind policies prioritize other metrics of academic performance besides standardized tests, such as GPA, course rigor, and class rank. They also have a more holistic admissions philosophy in general, so they give more importance to applicants’ extracurriculars and essays.
Unless you’re only applying to a test-blind college, you should try to take the SAT or ACT at least once. A strong standardized test score will help bolster your application to a test-optional school, and is a great way to differentiate yourself from the competing candidates. And if you don’t score well, you can always apply test-optional without any penalty.
Every college has different benchmarks for what they consider a strong SAT or ACT score. You will generally want to have a score within the top 25th percentile of scores for accepted students, but it can be hard to tell if you fall in that range. That’s where CollegeVine’s chancing engine comes in. This free admissions calculator will predict your odds of getting into your dream school — including test-optional and test-blind schools — and offer advice on how to improve your applicant profile. Sign up for a free CollegeVine account to get started!
