Test-optional admissions policy and the limits of access reform: a panel analysis

Despite widespread adoption, the equity and academic outcomes associated with test‑optional admissions policies remain empirically contested. Drawing on institutional panel data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) covering 1,518 four-year, non-open-admissions, non-community, non-profit institutions from 2017 to 2023, this study uses a two-way fixed-effects panel regression to describe how eight institutional outcomes differ, on average, between test-optional and test-required institutions before and after adoption, net of time-varying covariates and time-invariant institutional characteristics. The design shows a short-lived rise in application volume concentrated around the year of adoption, with no differences in retention, graduation, admission yield or submitted SAT scores after adjustment. Policy adoption is not associated with detectable differences in racial or socioeconomic enrolment diversity at any point in the adoption cycle examined. These patterns are consistent with test-optional policies serving primarily as an enrolment management strategy, suggesting that complementary structural interventions are needed to advance substantive equity in higher education access.