What do counselors think about test-optional admission?

Last week, we conducted a--well, not a survey, exactly--of high school and independent counselors, asking them what they thought about test-optional and test-free admission policies. This is more a testing of the waters of those interested enough and motivated enough to respond.

So, before the fans of tests (who can do their own testing of the water at any time, of course), point this out, file this under "interesting, but not definitive." It might drive discussions, but it won't make a decision for us. And it shouldn't for you, either.

We received about 440 responses, mostly responding to an email we sent to high school counselors across the country. Those responses came from all over, including some from schools that had probably never sent an applicant, let alone an enrolling student to OSU; but we can't be sure because the survey was anonymous. But we received almost as many responses from Massachusetts, New York, and New Jersey as we did from Oregon, interestingly enough.

Here are the high level results. The first view (using the tabs across the top) shows the role and location of the respondents. The second shows responses to the survey questions, filtering out those who didn't have an opinion one way or the other. On that view, you can filter by professional role, and choose either the questions about test-optional or test-free admission policies.

And finally, I asked counselors what they'd do if they were in charge at OSU. Those results are on the final tab, filterable by role and/or location.

What do you think? What do you notice? Is it the big thing I noticed? Drop me an email or post a comment below.

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