Ivy Day, the annual regular decision release date for the eight Ivy League schools, fell on March 31, 2022. The plummet in acceptance rates was not surprising⁠—however, the decision from Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania, and Cornell to withhold their acceptance data was.

Due to the historic low percentage of students admitted, these three universities have chosen to hide admissions data in an effort to lessen the anxiety students face during application season. With other selective schools, like Harvard, reporting rates as low as 3.19%, it isn’t difficult to imagine the stress students face. As such, Princeton, UPenn, and Cornell believe hiding these key figures will encourage more prospective students, no matter their background, to apply. However, opponents argue that hiding admissions statistics decreases universities’ transparency regarding how competitive they are and may inflate applicants’ beliefs on how realistic their chance of admission is. Nonetheless, given the novelty of these policy changes, it’s unclear how much they will actually encourage students to apply.

Interestingly, these universities aren’t the first selective schools to withhold such data. In 2018, Stanford announced that it will no longer publish its annual report on all statistics relating to that year’s cycle in the hopes of encouraging more students to apply. Although the recent decisions from the three Ivies don’t seem to have been influenced by Stanford’s move, they may very well influence more schools in the future to also hide their acceptance statistics.

The news comes at a time of great mental health challenges for students. Over a third of high school students have reported poor mental health during the pandemic, an alarming figure likely compounded by anxiety for the future. With the pandemic’s impact on education slowly subsiding, many schools are making policy changes to better accommodate the wave of mental illness that has crashed upon high school students. For example, the California State University system joined the University of California system in permanently dropping standardized testing requirements on the basis of being more inclusive to students. In contrast, other schools, such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Georgetown University, have reinstated SAT/ACT requisites for applicants. MIT published an evidence-based rationale behind its decision, including reference to how tests allow applicants to prove their readiness for a stimulating education and research on how the tests are a reliable predictor of students’ academic success. With top schools following both paths, the dilemma of standardized testing only continues to grow more complex.

From hiding acceptance rates to growing mental health issues, navigating the need for standardized testing to structural shifts brought by the pandemic, the landscape of college admissions has never been so difficult to traverse. To both universities and students, the constant shift in expectations has been quite the test, demonstrating schools’ selectivity and students’ relentless drive.