Is “Test-Free” College Admission Here to Stay?
The pandemic brought massive changes to many areas of life, all over the world – and that includes the higher education system in the United States.
COVID-19 protocols and all the difficulties they entailed caused many college admissions offices – including those in the Ivy League and other top-tier schools – to waive the SAT and ACT for many new applicants. Hundreds of schools either simply dropped the requirement or made their applications “test-optional.”
Will this last? Maybe. Many schools are still evaluating the results. MIT already announced that it will once more require standardized testing from applicants, but a lot of other schools have permanently ended them – and most are still trying to figure out which direction they want to go.
Broadly speaking, there’s still a lot of support for standardized testing when it comes to the college admissions process – although that support has been slipping. Currently, 39% of adults believe standardized testing should play a major role in admissions, while 46% think test scores should at least factor into the decision-making.
If you’re a student, the appeal of test-free or test-optional admission may or may not make sense. Here’s what you should know:
The Benefits for Students When Schools Go Test-Free
Essentially, SAT and ACT test scores have long been held as the “gold standard” that predicts how well a student will do in college – but that ignores the fact that alleged biases in both tests have been problematic for students of color and women.
In addition, those test scores could be very misleading. It can be heartbreaking for a student who has achieved much and earned good grades throughout their high school career to freeze up during the SAT or ACT and end up with a score that’s just too low to gain admission to their preferred school.
The anxiety over test scores also tends to take over a lot of students’ lives, especially as they get nearer to their high school graduations. When students are, out of necessity, focused on producing great results on a single test, they may lose out on important parts of their education and experience a lot of unnecessary stress and anxiety.
In short, if you’re a student who normally does great work but doesn’t test well, you may prefer test-free or test-blind admissions.
The Drawbacks of Test-Free and Test-Optional Policies
The flip side of the coin, of course, is the student who is counting on the ACT or SAT to level the playing field for them when it comes to the college admissions game.
All schools are not built alike, and students from privileged backgrounds may enjoy academic and extracurricular opportunities that students with limited means do not. The ACT and SAT were purposefully designed to give schools a way to measure them equally.
Also, a test-free or test-blind school could be disadvantageous for students who have problem grades. If, for example, a student had a rough freshman year of high school, their grades at graduation may not reflect their full abilities. Assuming they do well on the standardized tests, the SAT or ACT gives them a chance to showcase their potential.
Ultimately, the shifting requirements may add a whole new wrinkle to the college admissions process for students. Choosing which schools to apply to may mean considering the advantages – and disadvantages – of their standardized testing requirements against your own needs.
