As college counselors scramble to advise their students on what to do while schools are out, high school juniors are struggling to navigate a college admissions process gone haywire. Typically, this time of year, we are encouraging our clients to finish their college visits, to prep for their first or even second shot at the SAT or ACT, and to drive their grades up as high as they can before the end of the school year. But this year isn’t typical. College visits have gone virtual, classes have gone online too, and the entire standardized testing system is in question.
One thing that is making this difficult situation a little easier, though, is the wave of colleges and universities that have already started to go test-optional in response to the challenges the Coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic has created in the admissions process.
There are three core reasons why schools that are not typically test-optional are choosing to go test-optional for the 2020-2021 college admissions season.
UNPREDICTABILITY
Both the College Board (which administers the SAT) and the ACT have already canceled and rescheduled test dates due to the coronavirus/COVID-19. Further changes are very likely, and with each shift to the schedule the number of students who need to take the SAT or ACT will be compounding. Eventually, it will be challenging, if not impossible, for College Board and the ACT to accommodate all of the students who want to take the critical tests they offer in the limited time available between when all is back to normal and when applications are due.
The longer the pandemic and related necessary social limitations go on, the more unpredictable test scheduling will become, and this unpredictability is a key reason why colleges are making standardized tests optional.
ACCESS
As the Coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic spreads, the impact will continue to be uneven. Some regions will recover much more quickly than others. Life will return to “normal” in certain areas while others are still under strict social controls. This will create uneven accessibility where some students can sit down for a test, while vast swaths of the country (and the world) are still stuck home.
One way that this uneven accessibility is being dealt with is by bringing testing into student’s homes. The College Board has already decided to modify the AP tests for 2020 so that they will be taken at home. Still, it seems unlikely that they will be able to do the same for SAT. Uneven access to the SAT and ACT is another key reason why colleges are going test-optional for 2020.
EFFICACY
The final reason why colleges and universities are going test-optional is that the effectiveness of standardized tests to measure student potential is already in question. The SAT was once seen as the golden ticket for college acceptance. A stellar score paired with strong grades was nearly all you needed to get into the best schools in the world. That’s not the way things are anymore. The SAT and the ACT aren’t golden tickets. Decreased emphasis on these standardized tests in the admissions process paired with unpredictability and inaccessibility makes the decision to go test-optional an easier one than ever.
SCHOOL ANNOUNCEMENTS
It doesn’t surprise us that small schools were some of the first to announce that they were going test-optional for the coming college season. Smaller schools are especially agile, as can be seen in the announcements from Mansfield University and Westminster College.
But it isn’t just small schools who are taking the big step. The University of Oregon announced that all Oregon state schools would be test-optional this coming year. Boston University and Case Western have also announced that they will be test-optional for the next admissions cycle. It’s been reported that Tufts has gone even further by announcing that they have instituted a three-year hiatus from testing requirements.
More than 1,000 colleges and universities are already test-optional, and we expect to see many more follow suit — whether on a trial or long-term basis — in the coming weeks.
If you are looking for expert guidance in the college process, send us a note. We help our students stay ahead of the curve every step of the way.