Guide
What test-optional means in this file
Test-optional on this page means one Scorecard value. The admissions consideration field, ADMCON7, is 5: the college says it considers SAT or ACT scores, and it does not require them. A different policy, or a blank policy, does not land here.
Policies change, and the Scorecard can lag a decision a college announced last month. Use this list to see the reported policy. Then check the college before you apply. The table sorts by state.
- Schools
- 1,064
- States
- 51
- Median admit rate
- 77%
- 1,057 report a rate
- Median earnings
- $56,346
- 10 years after entry
Considered, but not required
Value 5 is a specific answer. The student may send scores. The college says it will look at them. That is different from a college that requires scores, and different from a college that says it will not consider scores at all.
The page does not read a website banner or a news article. If the Scorecard still says optional, the college stays on this list until the field changes. If the Scorecard says something else, the college is on another list or on none.
The other two answers
Test-required colleges report value 1. Scores are required. Test-blind colleges report value 3. Scores are not considered. Those pages exist so this one can stay narrow.
A blank ADMCON7 field is not optional. The college is simply missing from all three policy pages. Do not read a missing row as a secret fourth policy.
How to use a policy list
This list is large, and the colleges on it do not share a selectivity band. An open-admission college and a college that admits a small share can both say scores are optional. Read the admission rate before you assume the policy tells you how hard entry is.
Sending a score is allowed under this reported policy. Whether a score helps is a question the Scorecard does not answer. The college's own current instructions are the authority for an application in progress.
Why the field lags
Test policy moved quickly at many colleges over the last several years, in both directions. A federal data file is not a live feed. A row here can be right for the Scorecard year and stale for this month's application.
The page also does not know about a temporary pilot, a program-level exception, or a requirement that applies only to home-schooled applicants. Those details are narrower than ADMCON7. They belong on the college's site.
Where the schools are
These schools sit in 51 states. The largest groups are Pennsylvania (97), New York (95), Texas (58), Ohio (51), and Illinois (43). The rest of the roll is spread across the other states in the table.
The full roll has 1,064 schools. The table shows 100 at a time. The page links under the table move through the rest. Page 1 is the canonical address.
Who runs them
By reported control, 646 are private nonprofit, 383 are public, and 35 are private for-profit. A blank control stays out of that split.
Predominant degree is the credential the campus awards most often. On this list it is a bachelor's degree at 1,025 schools, an associate degree at 25 schools, and a certificate at 14 schools. A campus can still award other credentials.
How large they are
The largest undergraduate enrollments on this list are Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, Arizona, with 73,371 undergraduates, Texas A&M University-College Station in College Station, Texas, with 59,615 undergraduates, Ohio State University-Main Campus in Columbus, Ohio, with 45,638 undergraduates, Brigham Young University-Idaho in Rexburg, Idaho, with 44,397 undergraduates, and The University of Texas at Austin in Austin, Texas, with 42,855 undergraduates. Enrollment is the undergraduate figure. It is not a ranking, and it leaves out graduate students.
3 schools are reported as online-only. The others are not marked that way in this file.
Admission
1,057 of 1,064 schools report an admission rate. The median of those rates is 77%. Schools with no reported rate stay out of the median. A missing rate is not an open door, and it is not a closed one.
The lowest reported admission rates on this list are Stanford University in Stanford, California, at 4%, Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, at 4%, and Columbia University in the City of New York in New York, New York, at 4%. A lower rate is harder entry. It is not a score for the school.
The highest reported admission rates on this list are DeVry University-Georgia in Decatur, Georgia, at 100%, American Islamic College in Chicago, Illinois, at 100%, and Chamberlain University-Indiana in Indianapolis, Indiana, at 100%.
What they charge
Among 380 public colleges that report an in-state sticker price, the median is $10,391. 3 other public colleges on the list do not report one. Among 676 private colleges that report a sticker price, the median is $40,517. 5 other private colleges on the list do not report one.
Sticker price is not net price. Grants, waivers, and a service commitment can move the bill by a wide margin. Open a school for the net-price figures.
Earnings and graduation
Among 1,047 schools that report earnings, the median of those school-level medians is $56,346. The clock starts at entry, not at graduation. The highest reported medians on this list are Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, California, at $138,687, University of Health Sciences and Pharmacy in St. Louis in Saint Louis, Missouri, at $137,047, and Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences in Albany, New York, at $131,426.
Among 1,052 schools that report a graduation rate, the median rate is 60%. A blank rate is left out. It is not treated as zero.
Athletics in this file
272 report NCAA Division I athletics, 99 play FBS football, and 97 play FCS football. A blank athletics field means this file has no division for that campus. It does not prove the campus has no team.
Also on other lists
Some of these schools also meet the rule for another list on this site. The overlap is a second flag or a second classification. It is not a second ranking.
115 are also on R1 research universities. 89 are also on R2 research universities. 166 are also on liberal arts colleges. 38 are also on HBCU colleges. 120 are also on Hispanic-serving institutions. 23 are also on women's colleges. 5 are also on men's colleges.
How these figures work
Admission rate, enrollment, sticker price, earnings, and graduation rate all come from the College Scorecard. Earnings are the median 10 years after a student entered the school. Tuition for a public college is the in-state sticker price. Tuition for a private college is the published sticker price. None of these is net price after aid.
A blank field stays blank. This page does not turn a blank admission rate into an open door, a blank fee into a free application, or a blank earnings figure into zero. The table above is membership under the rule in this guide. Sort order is not a quality ranking.