Factors for college rankings often include acceptance rate (lower is better), and average SAT/ACT scores. By not requiring SAT/ACT scores, you do two things at once:
1. you allow more people to apply, especially those who did not take the test or received a poor score, who you can simply reject to bring down your acceptance rate
2. by making it optional, only the applicants who think their score would be an advantage (i.e. those with high scores) would send them, which brings up your "average test scores".
Factors for college rankings often include acceptance rate (lower is better), and average SAT/ACT scores. By not requiring SAT/ACT scores, you do two things at once:
1. you allow more people to apply, especially those who did not take the test or received a poor score, who you can simply reject to bring down your acceptance rate
2. by making it optional, only the applicants who think their score would be an advantage (i.e. those with high scores) would send them, which brings up your "average test scores".