What the Latest Common App Data Tells Us About Test Scores
Dear MJTP families,
I've been perusing some recent data in the Common App's March 1 application update this month. I think it has some valuable insights for all of us.
This is a real reversal. As recently as last year, the majority of applicants reached the March 1 deadline without submitting a score. That is no longer the case. The number of applicants reporting a test score grew by ten percent compared to the same point last season, while the number of applicants who withheld a score fell by six percent.
What makes this notable is that colleges didn't force the change. Only five percent of Common App member colleges actually require a test score, which is essentially unchanged from a year ago. Students are choosing to submit their scores on their own. When given the option to include a score or leave it off, more and more families are deciding a strong score helps their application, and they are putting it on the table.
The trend holds across every group of students the report examined. Students from a wide range of backgrounds are all moving in the same direction, with score reporting growing faster than non-reporting in each case. This is not a narrow trend confined to one type of applicant. It is the whole applicant pool shifting at once.
What does this mean?
The data measures how many students chose to report a score, not how high those scores were, and it does not single out the SAT on its own. So the honest takeaway is not that tests are suddenly required again. The takeaway is that the quiet test-optional era is fading in practice, and a good score is once again something that sets a student apart rather than something that can simply be skipped.
That is exactly why consistent, daily preparation matters now, and it is the thinking behind everything we do here at MJTP.
Have a great week. We're less than 7 days from the June SAT!
Mr. John
