By: Lauren Mittleman
The world is on lockdown due to coronavirus precautions, cancelling large gatherings in an attempt to stop the spread of the disease, with the SAT and ACT being no exception. These standardized tests hold a prominent role in the college admissions process. While high school students applying to colleges have multiple opportunities to take these exams, the spring of junior year is the optimal time for students who are planning to apply to college in the fall. With the SAT and ACT test dates being cancelled, universities should consider becoming test optional to alleviate stress for high school juniors who are unable to get the score they want.
The College Board administers the SAT and arranged a makeup test date for the March exam, at no additional charge to the students, after several test dates were cancelled. However, this makeup exam was then cancelled, along with the May 2 SAT administration, via an email by the College Board. ACT, inc. cancelled their April test date and has given students the option to reschedule their test to be on the Jun. 13 or Jul. 18th at no extra cost to the student, according to an email sent out by ACT Customer Care on Mar. 17.
Many students are not satisfied with the score they get the first time and other students have not even taken a test yet, as they were planning to take it during the spring, according to junior Madison Jordan. In fact, 43% of students who have taken the ACT chose to take the test more than once last year, and more than half of these students’ scores improved, according to the ACT website. With the cancellation of both ACT and SAT spring test dates, students will have significantly less chances to improve their composite score. So, keeping these cancellations in mind, colleges across the United States should consider going test optional, or at least having more flexibility with their testing requirements for the high school class of 2021. Colleges should focus on other aspects of students’ applications, such as their essays and GPA, which actually show what the applicant is like.
A study by Former Dean of Admissions for Bates College, William Hess, monitored the grades and graduation rates of students who submitted their test scores to the test optional college versus those who did not. The students that did not submit their test scores had scores that averaged about 160 points lower than the average of the students that did submit their scores. However, his study concluded that there was only a 0.5 difference in overall GPA for those who submitted test scores compared to those who did not.
Furthermore, Hess’ study found that the graduation rates for the two groups were almost identical. There was only a 0.1% difference, showing that SAT scores do not indicate how smart the tester is or how well they will do in college. These test scores are a substantial factor in the college admission process but they should not be used to do so if they do not accurately reflect a person’s intelligence or likelihood of succeeding in college.
In recent years, more and more colleges across the nation have opted to go test-optional. This is more beneficial because it gives students more control over how they present themselves to admissions officers at colleges, rather than simply being defined as the number they receive on a standardized test. The SAT and ACT scores a student gets should not determine the college they attend or their entire future, especially when these tests were proven to have practically no correlation with how the student does in college.
University of Chicago, George Washington University, and Wake Forest University are just a few of many high-ranking colleges that are test optional. In light of recent circumstances involving the coronavirus, other colleges are following in the lead. The University of Oregon sent an email announcing that they are no longer requiring freshman applicants to submit SAT or ACT scores. Oregon State University and the UC system also recently adopted a test optional admission policy. More colleges should follow in their lead and switch to test optional admissions policies so that SAT and ACT test scores do not hold back deserving students from attending the school of their dreams.
On the other hand, the SAT and ACT allow for a common data point that can be used to compare all applicants for a college instead of solely a student’s GPA, which is not very subjective because the difficulty level of classes at every high school varies. However, although these tests may be standardized, that does not mean that they accurately represent a students intelligence.
Colleges across the country should opt to be test optional bearing in mind that SAT and ACT test administrations have been cancelled due to the spread of the coronavirus. Current juniors in high school do not have as many opportunities as previous years have had to retake these tests and improve their scores, in addition to the fact that the essays applicants write show far more about them as an applicant than these standardized tests ever could.
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