The SSAT Demographic Survey: What It Asks and Whether You Have to Answer

What the SSAT Demographic Survey Actually Asks

When you register on the SSAT site (or sign up for any service operated by the Enrollment Management Association), you'll fill out a profile that includes a set of demographic questions. The full list of SSAT demographic questions is short, but it covers more ground than most parents expect.

The eight demographic categories

EMA's profile schema covers eight categories. Race and ethnicity options align with U.S. Census standards and the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) Demographic Center — the same categories member schools already use for admissions reporting. That alignment matters: if you answer the survey honestly, the format your school will use to count and report demographics matches the format you completed.

• Pronouns — for both parent and student profiles
• Gender identity — Female, Male, Self-Identify, or Prefer Not to Respond
• Sex at birth — pulled from a birth certificate or government record
• Race — U.S. Census-aligned categories with a Prefer Not to Respond option
• Ethnicity — Hispanic or Latino, Not Hispanic or Latino, or Prefer Not to Respond
• First language — the language the student learned first or speaks most fluently
• Faith-based affiliation — including a "No religious affiliation" choice
• School gender preference — all-girls, all-boys, coed, or any combination

Parent vs student fields

The survey isn't all about the student. Parents create their own EMA account first, and that parent profile collects pronouns and contact information for the parent or guardian. Students then have their own profile under the parent account, and that's where gender, sex at birth, race, ethnicity, first language, faith, and school preferences are captured. Knowing which account holds which information matters when you go to update something later.

When you encounter the survey

Most families hit the demographic questions twice: once when they first create the parent and student accounts, and again whenever they fill in optional sections of the student profile (for example, if you later decide to use the Standard Application Online to apply to schools). Test registration itself does not introduce any new demographic questions — those fields are part of the underlying profile that EMA carries across SSAT, Character Skills Snapshot, and SAO.

Required vs Optional Questions on the SSAT

The SSAT optional vs required questions distinction is where most family confusion happens. EMA's registration UI does not visually distinguish required fields from voluntary ones in a way that always feels obvious, so families often assume every demographic question must be answered. It doesn't.

What's truly required

Three pieces of information must be supplied before EMA will accept a registration: the student's legal name (used on the score report and required to match government ID), the student's date of birth (used to determine which level of the SSAT — Elementary, Middle, or Upper — your child takes), and the parent's contact information (because parents are notified for any account or score-related issue). Everything else — every demographic field — is voluntary.

Why every demographic field is optional

Each demographic question on the EMA platforms includes a "Prefer Not to Respond" option, which is treated as a valid completed answer. Selecting it does not flag your registration, slow down processing, or send any signal to schools. Parents who feel uncomfortable with a particular question can use that option for that field alone without affecting the rest of the profile.

What changes if you use the SAO

Full profile completion only becomes mandatory if you decide to apply to schools through the Standard Application Online (SAO). The SAO is a separate service from the SSAT itself — many families take the SSAT and apply to schools directly through each school's portal without using SAO at all. If you do use SAO, schools you apply to will require certain profile fields to be filled in before they accept the application. Even then, "Prefer Not to Respond" remains a valid answer for the demographic categories.

Who Actually Sees Your Demographic Responses

The biggest source of confusion around SSAT demographic information schools receive is that different EMA services share different fields. The standard SSAT score report is much narrower than parents typically assume, and the more sensitive fields (race, ethnicity, sex at birth, first language) only travel to schools when you opt into a service that carries them.

What's on the SSAT score report

The official SSAT score report sent to schools contains the student's name, date of birth, address, phone number, and gender — and that's it on the demographic side. Race, ethnicity, sex at birth, first language, and faith-based affiliation are not included on the standard score report. If your child takes the SSAT and you ask EMA to send scores directly to schools, those schools see scaled scores, percentiles, and the basic biographic data above. Nothing more.

What schools see through the SAO

The Standard Application Online (SAO) is a separate application service. Families who use it submit a much richer profile to the schools they're applying to, including parent and student pronouns, student gender, sex at birth, first language, race, and ethnicity. This is by design — the SAO's job is to support a full admissions application, and admissions offices use this information for the same reasons they ask for it on any application form.

What goes through the school-connection service

EMA also runs an opt-in service that connects families with schools that may be a strong fit (the Student Prospect List and PROSPECT). Families who opt in share basic profile information — including grade level, gender, sex at birth, first language, race, ethnicity, and school preferences — with member schools, partner colleges, and education partners. You can opt out of this service in your account settings, and doing so does not affect your SSAT registration or score reporting.

How EMA Uses the Demographic Data

The next obvious question is what EMA itself does with all of this data. EMA's stated purposes are narrower than many families assume, and the language they publish is consistent with how member schools actually use the information.

What the data is never used for

Demographic responses are not used to calculate SSAT scores or percentiles. The scoring algorithm operates only on student answers in the verbal, quantitative, and reading sections. EMA also states that it does not sell personal demographic data to outside marketers — the only sharing with third parties is through opt-in services like the Student Prospect List and through schools and education partners that families themselves designate.

Updating or Removing Your Information After Registration

SSAT registration demographic information is not locked in once you submit. Almost every field can be edited later, and it's easier than most parents expect — but you have to know which account to log into.

Editing the student profile

All profile information except the legal name can be updated through the student account dashboard. Sign in, click "Profile," and you can change pronouns, gender, sex at birth, race, ethnicity, first language, faith-based affiliation, and school gender preferences in seconds. Updates take effect immediately and propagate to the SAO and school-connection services if you use them.

Fixing date of birth or legal name

Date of birth changes are made through the parent or guardian account, not the student account. Legal name is the only field that cannot be edited through any dashboard — to fix a misspelling or change a name, parents have to email info@enrollment.org with documentation. EMA reviews these case-by-case because the legal name appears on score reports and must match government ID at the test center.

Opting out of the Student Prospect List

If you initially opted into the school-connection service or Student Prospect List but want out, head to Account Settings → Notifications and toggle the relevant preferences. To remove an account entirely or send a privacy-specific request, email privacy@enrollment.org from the parent/guardian account. Children under the age of 13 cannot register independently, so account deletion for younger students must be initiated by the parent or guardian who created the account.

Common Concerns and Quick Answers

These three concerns come up repeatedly in parent forums, in EMA support tickets, and on competitor help pages. The answers are short, but they're worth saying clearly.

Will demographic answers affect my score?

No. SSAT scoring uses only your child's answers on the verbal, quantitative, and reading sections. Gender, race, ethnicity, sex at birth, first language, and faith-based affiliation are never inputs to the scoring algorithm or the percentile calculation. EMA states this explicitly, and the same answer applies to the Character Skills Snapshot, which uses its own scoring mechanism unrelated to demographic responses.

Will skipping questions hurt my application?

No. Choosing "Prefer Not to Respond" is treated as a legitimate, equal-status answer — not a flag, not a missing field, not a signal of any kind. Schools that use the SAO see the same response and read it as a privacy preference. The only situation where leaving a field blank can cause friction is when a particular school's application form requires it; in that case the school will prompt for the information directly during the application, separate from the SSAT registration.

Are categories inclusive of nonbinary students?

EMA expanded its options on August 1, 2022 to include nonbinary gender choices, additional race categories, sex at birth, first language, and faith-based affiliation, alongside the previously introduced Mx. prefix. The expansion was designed in coordination with outside experts to align with U.S. Census and NAIS standards while broadening representation. Students who don't see their identity reflected in the preset choices can use the "Self-Identify" open response field for gender or "My Preferred Pronouns" for the pronouns field.

Frequently Asked Questions