It Worked

In February of 2020, we knew it would be an enrollment year like no other at Indiana University. Our faculty and Board of Trustees had just approved a new test-optional admissions policy, and we were poised to become the first test-optional institution in the Big Ten Academic Alliance. A few weeks later, as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold in the U.S., we realized it would be a year like no other for every university and every student. As we all quickly pivoted to reach and support students in new ways, we continued to push forward to implement test-optional admissions and a test-excluded scholarship strategy.

The result? A larger, more diverse and more academically prepared class than we even imagined.

While we have long believed that a combination of factors, including standardized test scores, can best predict a student’s potential for success in college, we recognize that a test score may not accurately reflect every student’s academic potential. Our 18 months of research and modeling had predicted that we would see 15 to 20 percent of our applicants choose not to have test scores considered. With the global pandemic and the challenges it presented to standardized test scheduling and availability, that number ended up being about 47 percent of our applicant pool.

During the inaugural year of IU Bloomington’s test-optional policy, as we centered our focus on students’ academic coursework in high school, we not only enrolled a record class of 9,482 students, but we also saw increased interest from prospective students from more diverse cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds. The new approach helped us to increase the number of Pell Grant-eligible students and to further build upon our decade of enrollment growth among historically marginalized students -- all while delivering an academically talented class with our second-highest median grade point average on record. The class also includes record numbers of honors program participants as well as direct admits into students’ programs of choice.

As we shaped our test-optional policy to increase equity in the admissions process, we knew we needed a complementary scholarship strategy that wouldn’t disadvantage those students who chose not to have test scores considered or were unable to take the test due to canceled test administrations. With student equity as our top priority -- and research that shows that high school academic performance continues to be a strong predictor of college success -- we designed a test-excluded process for awarding academic scholarships. Through the new awarding model, we were able to extend support to a broader spectrum of talented students, including students with otherwise unmet financial need. As a result, the number of academic scholarship recipients with financial need more than doubled from the previous year.

From the start, these initiatives have received the support and encouragement of Indiana University faculty members, who welcome diverse voices in the classroom. As Marietta Simpson, Distinguished Rudy Professor of Music and president of the Bloomington Faculty Council, wrote to me, “I have long been a supporter of the efforts to have an application process that provides greater access to an increased number of individuals, leading to a more diverse student population. I think I am safe in saying the test-optional admissions policy has exceeded everyone's expectations. I also appreciate that the test-excluded scholarship strategy was envisioned at the same time. The two go hand in hand.”

At the same time as we rolled out these new admissions and scholarship processes -- and accelerated by the pandemic -- we strategically implemented technology to meet students where they are. We aimed to not just approximate the “normal” college enrollment process in a virtual world but to rethink that process to level the playing field for more students.

We hosted virtual recruitment programs, created new virtual communities for engagement and conversation with current IU students and other prospective students, and guided students every step of the way with videos, live Q&As and good old-fashioned phone calls. These tactics were all carried out alongside our absolute commitment to equitably considering high school academic performance in admissions and scholarship awarding, regardless of high school and ability to provide a test score.

And the results prove our efforts worthwhile. All of our metrics point to more students gaining access to an IU education and, in turn, more people transforming their lives -- and perhaps the lives of future generations.

We will continue to support future students through our test-optional admissions policy and our test-excluded scholarship strategy to provide more opportunity to a diverse group of students than ever before. I could not be prouder of the work our enrollment team has done, and I cannot wait to see what the future brings as we reaffirm our commitment to recruiting and serving promising students who then persist and graduate from IU.