Contextualizing the SAT - Experimental Evidence on College Admission Recommendations for Low-SES Applicants

Oct 15, 2026

Randomized-controlled study examines whether presenting SAT scores in context, relative to school and neighborhood peers, increases recommendation likelihood for low-socioeconomic-status applicants among admission officers (n=321). The research also tests whether adding a personal essay that signals grit improves decision making. Officers in the contextual condition were significantly more likely to accept both low-SES and high-SES applicants, while grit conveyed in essays did not increase admissions.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages30

Reading Time1 h 16 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Keywords

College admissions and standardized test reliance

Socioeconomic diversity pressures

Enrollment disparities and applicant quality

Contextual comparison in selective admissions

Holistic review and non-cognitive factors

Contextualizing the SAT: Experimental Evidence on College Admission Recommendations for Low-SES Applicants Educational Policy 2022, Vol. 36(2) 282–311 © The Author(s) 2019 Article reuse guidelines: [sagepub.com/journals-permissions](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)[ ](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)[DOI: 10.1177/0895904819874752](DOI: 10.1177/0895904819874752)[ ](DOI: 10.1177/0895904819874752)[journals.sagepub.com/home/epx](journals.sagepub.com/home/epx) Michael N. Bastedo 1, Kristen M. Glasener 1, K. C. Deane 1, and Nicholas A. Bowman2 Abstract Although it is well established that college entrance exams have become a key factor for admission to selective institutions, less is known about the influence of test scores in relation to other academic factors in the evaluation of a student’s application file. This study conducts a randomized-controlled trial to determine whether providing students’ test scores in context—how they perform relative to their school and neighborhood peers—increases the likelihood that admission officers (n = 321) would recommend admitting low-socioeconomic status (SES) applicants. The study also examines how including a personal admission essay that conveys grit, or ability to persevere in the pursuit of long-term goals, influences admission decision making. Admission officers in the contextual condition were significantly more likely to accept both the low-SES and high-SES applicant than those without contextual information on test scores; however, they were not more likely to accept applicants who convey grit in their personal essays. 1 University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA 2The University of Iowa, Iowa City, USA Corresponding Author: Michael N. Bastedo, University of Michigan, 610 E. University, 2108C SEB, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA. Email: [bastedo@umich.edu](bastedo@umich.edu) Keywords college admissions, college access, low-income students, grit, randomizedcontrolled trial, holistic review Selective colleges and universities are learning how to grapple with two potentially competing trends in college admission. The first trend involves an increased reliance on standardized test scores as a central component used to determine whether to admit an applicant (Alon & Tienda, 2007) . Standardized test scores not only help ease the burden of evaluating growing applicant pools (Lemann, 1999) but they are also frequently cited as an important predictor of students’ future performance in college (Shaw, Kobrin, Patterson, & Mattern, 2012) . When used without contextual factors influencing a student’s performance, such as the academic opportunities available at their high schools, test scores may become a powerful sorting mechanism that disproportionately affects the chances of admission for applicants from low-socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds. Although reliance on standardized test scores has increased over time, a second trend in selective college admissions is the growing pressure to improve the socioeconomic diversity of institutions’student bodies. From the White House College Opportunity Summit in 2014 to recent efforts like the American Talent Initiative, top-tier colleges and universities are being asked to increase the number of low-SES students in their campuses. Part of this pressure is the result of modest improvements in low-SES student enrollment over the past several decades. Low-income students (those in the bottom quintile of income) remain severely underrepresented at selective institutions, constituting less than 5% of enrollment at the most selective institutions (Chetty, Friedman, Saez, Turner, & Yagan, 2017). Although low-income students have made strong gains in academic preparation since the 1970s, higher-income students have made even stronger gains on the same academic indicators (Alon & Tienda, 2007; Bastedo & Jaquette, 2011). As a result, lowSES students remain at a competitive disadvantage in the selective admissions process compared with their

FAQs

What question does the study investigate about SAT scores?

It tests whether providing SAT test scores in context, compared with school and neighborhood peers, changes admission officers’ recommendations for low-SES applicants.

How does the study assess the role of personal essays?

It examines whether including a personal admission essay that conveys grit influences admission decision making.

What were the study’s main findings regarding contextual test-score information and grit?

Contextualized test-score information significantly increased acceptance for both low-SES and high-SES applicants, but grit in personal essays did not lead to higher acceptance rates.

Oct 15, 2026

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