When supporters of test-optional admissions planned Thursday's session at the annual meeting here of the National Association for College Admission Counseling, the time peg was that 2019 will mark the 50th year since Bowdoin College dropped a requirement that all applicants submit SAT or ACT scores. But much of the excitement was about more current developments. Attendees noted the decision of the University of Chicago to go test optional this year, for example. Colby College announced such a decision this week. So did Rosemont College.
But even as several hundred gathered here to discuss the test-optional movement, news about the University of California -- which has not made a decision on the issue -- captured attention. The university system's campuses receive more than 200,000 applications a year.