This last year has seen an increasing number of colleges go test optional, meaning that applicants decide for themselves whether to submit SAT or ACT scores. Many of these colleges report increases in application numbers, particularly from minority applicants. But some have suggested that these moves are motivated more by a goal of gaming the rankings and promoting colleges' own interests than by promoting diversity. When a college is test optional, the theory goes, everyone with scores above the average for that college will continue to submit their scores, while others won't, so the average SAT score goes up, and rankings may follow.
But there is one competitive college in America today whose testing policy can't be seen as gaming the rankings -- and that's because its policy results in U.S. News & World Report refusing to rank it.
Read more at Inside Higher Ed: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/09/21/hampshire-reports-successful-admissions-year-going-test-blind