Projects

This study will examine changes in admissions (application numbers, admit rates) and enrollment patterns among Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and low-income students under test-optional policies adopted during the pandemic. The study will also examine how features of test-optional policies (e.g., test-optional vs. test-free policies, test-optional for admissions only vs. test-optional for admissions and scholarship consideration) relate to enrollment outcomes. Overall, we hope to offer insight into how colleges can design more equitable admissions policies.

As testing and other undergraduate application requirements continue to evolve at hundreds of selective postsecondary institutions, college aspirants, families, and counselors need access to a reliable, user-friendly, one-stop source of information about application requirements. Without an easily accessible and dependable information resource, even seasoned college counselors find it challenging to quickly find application requirements that different colleges and universities each ask applicants to submit.

To address this information gap, our project aims to develop an ADA-compliant, online, searchable clearinghouse to ease the burdens on the college search process in the current decentralized higher education ecosystem, particularly for students of color and low-income students.

With the shift to test-optional, parts of the application, like letters of recommendation and the documentation of extracurricular activities, are poised to play a more prominent role in the evaluation of applicants. However, the extent to which inequality influences key non-standardized elements of the college application is an area in need of more research. We are analyzing extracurricular activities and letters of recommendation in millions of applications from the Common Application, the most exhaustive collection of college applications to ever exist in the U.S. context.