College test-optional policies and applications, admissions, enrolments, and campus diversity

Colleges in the United States are increasingly adopting test-optional admission policies. Using data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, we estimate the effects of these policies on applications, admissions, and student diversity. We find no change in overall applications, a 3.4%-point increase in admission rates, and a 3.0%-point decline in yield rates. Overall racial minority enrolment shares (defined as Alaskan, Black, Hispanic, or Hawaiian students) remained unchanged, but Black enrolment share increased by 0.7% points. These findings suggest that test-optional policies increased admissions but had limited impact on advancing diversity goals in higher education.