As the end of the year approaches, high school students across the country are busy applying to as many colleges as they can before deadlines come and go.

For many students, this means taking one last shot at the SAT and hoping their scores improve before they finish up applications.

Kurt Strazdins/MCT

Wake Forest, though, became test-optional in 2008, which means it stopped requiring prospective students to submit either the SAT or ACT as part of the criteria for admissions. A recent story by CBS News featured the results of six years of test-optional status Wake Forest.

More than 800 schools have become test-optional in recent years.

Many more have become test-flexible, which means that in lieu of SAT or ACT scores, students can submit two SAT subject tests, Advanced Placement exams or International Baccalaureate Exams.

“We based our decision to become test optional on mounting research that the SAT and ACT added little to the admissions equation and were indeed a barrier to many excellent students who had excelled in high school in rigorous curricula, who were talented and motivated and would add to the Wake Forest community,” said Martha Allman, dean of admissions at Wake Forest.

“By making standardized tests optional, we declared that Wake Forest was more concerned with a student’s four year record than on how she or he performed on a four hour Saturday test.”

One of the most detailed studies on the topic was conducted by the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) and released in Feb. 2014. It concluded that there was no significant difference in either GPA or graduation rate between those who submitted their test scores and those who did not.

“Across the study, non-submitters … earned cumulative GPAs that were only .05 lower than submitters, 2.83 versus 2.88. The difference in their graduation rates was .6%. With almost 123,000 students at 33 widely differing institutions, the differences between submitters and non-submitters are five one-hundredths of a GPA point, and six-tenths of one percent in graduation rates. By any standard, these are trivial differences,” said the study.

Allman believes that this study supports what Wake Forest was one of the first to realize: just because a student doesn’t test well doesn’t mean that they will not be successful in college.

“Our decision has resonated as being fair and forward-looking, defining Wake Forest as a school that values the individual and interpersonal communication. We have seen our racial, ethnic and socioeconomic diversity climb dramatically since becoming test optional.  This year we have received 33 percent more early decision applications that last year’s record year with the largest increases coming from minority students.  Becoming test optional has broadened our applicant pool and student body in many ways,” said Allman.

However, another study published in June 2014 by College Transitions, a group that provides counseling for students applying to college, suggests that the main beneficiaries of test-optional policies are the universities themselves, not the students attending the universities.

Essentially, the study states that when schools become test-optional, it leads more students to apply, which reduces the acceptance rate for universities.

“Our findings suggest that test-optional admissions policies, as a whole, have done little to meet their manifest goals of expanding educational opportunity for low-income and minority students,” said Andrew Belasco, CEO of College Transitions and conductor of the study.

“However, we find evidence that test-optional policies fulfill a latent function of increasing the perceived selectivity and status of these institutions. In doing so, these policies may serve to reproduce and maintain the current social structure — and its inequalities — within U.S. higher education.”

The study further concludes that test optional policies might, in fact, reinforce the very inequalities they strive to solve, because it allows for more affluent students who were borderline applicants to be accepted.

Both studies agree that the policy increases the percentages of diversity on college campuses, something Wake Forest has been striving to do in recent years.

The admissions page of Wake Forest states, “In the years since [we became test-optional] our undergraduate diversity has increased 30 percent, and 40 percent of the Class of 2013 graduated with academic distinction.”

Freshman Natalie Casimir, who was interviewed in the CBS story on Wake Forest’s test-optional status, thinks the school has made the right choice.

“I love Wake Forest’s test optional policy. It opens new doors of opportunity for those exceptional students who are not exceptional test takers. Our university is filled with inspiring, intelligent students from all walks of life as a result of this policy,” said Casimir.

Senior Corey Bloes is grateful for the options Wake Forest provided, and did not submit test scores when she applied  four years ago.

“I had lower test scores, but I was involved and had a strong academic record,” she said.

Wake Forest stands by its policy, explaining it succinctly on their admissions website: “It’s simple. If you think your scores are an accurate representation of your ability, feel free to submit them. If you feel they are not, don’t. You won’t be penalized.”