The Test-Optional Detail by Academic Quintile report enables you to see the impact of test score submission on admission results by institution and academic performance.

For each test-optional institution, Test and No Test profiles are provided for the most recent graduating class by academic quintile.

This report helps answer one question:

• Does academic performance influence admission rates when test scores make a difference?

This question is answered simply by comparing Test and No Test admission rates for each quintile and seeing how the spread changes from top to bottom quintile students.

EXAMPLE

Let’s take a look at the Test vs. No Test results for the 1st - 3rd Quintiles in our example above:

Looking across all applicants (first column), 62% of applicants submitted a test score (24/39) and there is a 5% difference in admission rate between those applying with and without a test score (25% vs 20%).

We can also see that the spread varies by academic quintile:

• A 10% admission rate advantage for top quintile applicants with test scores
• A 5% admission rate advantage for 2nd quintile applicants with test scores
• A 17% admission rate advantage for 3rd quintile applicants with test scores

There are two checks to make to confirm the advantage is material

• There are sufficient data points. Be sure that there are enough data points to draw conclusions and that you understand the sensitivity of the data. In this example, just one admitted student to the test-optional, 1st quintile pool will change the admission rate from 40% to 60% and completely negate any advantage.
  
  
• The applicant pools are academically comparable. A difference in admission rate may also be due to the quality of the respective applicant pools. For example, the 1st quintile GPA ranges for Test and No Test pools are comparable, but 2nd quintile GPA ranges are not. This suggests that something else is going on, such as there are hooked applicants influencing the results.