> Admissions officers at selective colleges were also “overwhelmed” by the volume of applicants that test-optional policies had unleashed. Given that acceptanc

> Admissions officers at selective colleges were also “overwhelmed” by the volume of applicants that test-optional policies had unleashed. Given that acceptance rates are used as a ranking metric, and given what we have learnt about the lengths that even elite colleges like Columbia will go to to game those rankings, how sure can we be that the increased volume of applications wasn't the actual reason why they adopted test-optional policies (plus the nice side effect of likely raising the average scores of those admitted students that did submit scores, another common ranking metric)?