Ask the expert: What's the real deal when colleges say they're 'test-optional'? Do they want a student to submit scores or not?

University of Rochester's Robert Alexander says academic performance over four years will always outweigh a score on a four-hour test.

Apr 15, 2025

2 min

Robert Alexander

Are test-optional colleges being straight with students when they say the absence of SAT and ACT scores on an application won’t affect a student’s chances of being admitted?


“Colleges are not trying to trick or trap applicants,” says Robert Alexander, who oversees the admissions process at the University of Rochester, where he is a vice provost and the dean of enrollment management. “No one is trying to fool anyone into thinking, ‘I don’t have to submit a test score,’ when that test score is secretly make-or-break.”


Much more important in any academic assessment, Alexander says, is and always has been the four years of academic performance detailed in an applicant’s high school transcript.


He says most colleges, including Rochester, take a deep dive into the transcript to not only consider the student’s grade point average, but also the rigor of the high school and its curriculum and why the student selected certain courses.


“Some students are limited by the opportunities offered at their schools,” Alexander says. “In that case, colleges look for what they have done to utilize their resources and push beyond those limitations.”


The University of Rochester has a test-optional policy.


The average standardized test score of incoming students has been trending upward, in part because the students who are most likely to submit their scores on their applications are those with strong scores.


Alexander says prospective students and their families can use the average test scores at the college or university they’re considering as a barometer, but not the arbiter of whether a student will gain acceptance.


“I think admissions officers are being as transparent as possible in telling students what they require,” Alexander says.


Alexander is an expert in undergraduate admissions and enrollment management who speaks on the subjects to national audiences and whose work has been published in national publications. Click his profile to reach him.


Connect with:
Robert Alexander

Robert Alexander

Vice Provost & University Dean for Enrollment Management

Alexander is an expert in undergraduate admissions, enrollment management, and curricular design.

Undergraduate AdmissionsTest optional admissionsCollege AdmissionsAdmissionsHigher Education Affordability

You might also like...

Check out some other posts from University of Rochester

1 min

Covering the Conclave? Our Expert Can Help.

The world is watching the Vatican as cardinals from across the globe gather for the papal conclave. The monumental event, which involves cardinals closing themselves off in the Sistine Chapel to elect a new pope, is steeped in history, mystery, and speculation. The new pontiff will be expected to make difficult decisions about the future direction of the Catholic church, which has almost 1.4 billion followers worldwide, and address the Vatican's strained finances and its sexual abuse scandals. If you're a reporter looking for an expert who can provide valuable insight, perspective and opinion on any angle of the events unfolding in Vatican City, consider reaching out to Jack Downey, the John Henry Newman Professor of Roman Catholic Studies at the University of Rochester.  Downey and his scholarship have been featured in media outlets such as The Washington Post, National Public Radio, and Time Magazine. Simply click on his icon now to arrange an interview today.

1 min

Hidden History of Bermuda is Reshaping the Way We Think About Colonial America

Early colonialism in the Americas tends to conjure images of Jamestown and Plymouth Colony. But long before settlers there acclimated to the New World’s growing conditions and overcame starvation conditions, an English settlement established in Bermuda in 1612 was wealthy and prosperous. University of Rochester historian and archaeologist Michael Jarvis has been uncovering the hidden history of Smith’s Island in Bermuda and its pivotal role in reshaping the understanding of colonial America. Nicknamed “Chainsaw Mike” by his students, he has spent 14 years excavating Smith’s Island and one of the first English settlements in the New World. Jarvis argues that Bermuda’s role in supplying Jamestown with food and influencing early colonists make it a cornerstone of America’s origin story rather than the historical footnote to which it has largely been relegated. His research on Smith’s Island was recently the cover story of Smithsonian magazine and was featured on the History Unplugged podcast. Jarvis is an expert on colonial America, the international and intercolonial networks of trade at the time, and settlement patterns in eastern North America, Bermuda, the Bahamas, and the communities surrounding European gold- and slave-trade forts in West Africa. He can be reached at 585-275-4558 and michael.jarvis@rochester.edu.

1 min

Research Matters: Targeting ‘jumping genes’ holds promise for treating age-related diseases

A growing number of clinical trials gauging the effects of inhibiting transposons, so-called “jumping genes,” have yielded encouraging results for treating Alzheimer’s and a wide range of other conditions. Vera Gorbunova, a molecular biologist at the University of Rochester whose research on the causes of aging and cancer is widely regarded as pioneering, says researchers tackling aging “need something new, and inhibiting transposons shows great promise.” Gorbunova’s comments were recently featured in Science magazine, a leading news outlet for cutting-edge research in all areas of science. Researchers say clinical trials of transposon inhibitors are important not just to identify potential treatments, but also to test whether jumping genes do, in fact, drive human diseases, as many suspect. Transposon genes are found in a diverse variety of organisms, from miniscule bacteria to humans, and they are known in biological terms as “transposable elements” because they literally jump around the genome. Their vagrancy has been implicated in illnesses such as lupus, Parkinson’s disease, cancer, and aging. Gorbunova is a recognized expert in aging and cancer whose research has been featured in high-profile publications ranging from Nature to The New York Times. Reach out to Gorbunova by clicking on her profile.

View all posts