Standardized testing. A long-held baseline requirement for admission to colleges everywhere – for better or for worse, the SAT and ACT were a (much bemoaned) fact of life for high school students everywhere for so long.
But COVID-19 changed all that. Tests are now off the table as a requirement for the majority of colleges and universities. Students and parents must be breathing a sigh of relief, right? Actually, not so much.
It turns out that these scores were an objective element of the application that colleges and universities felt they could depend on. And the added layer of nuance introduced to college applications across the country by the test-optional movement has raised big questions for parents and students in an already high-stakes process.
To test or not to test. Whether to invest in test preparation, and whether to submit scores. These are the vital questions for every applicant to explore.
When I work with students to optimize their test plan for college admissions, I look at the whole picture — transcript, activities, college list, and (of course) testing abilities — before making recommendations.
Counseling about testing in a test-optional landscape is complex, and bound to be different for each student, and nuanced for each college campus on their list. For more information on testing and test-optional trends, click HERE to watch our Colledge Talk | The Great Testing Debate.
Finally if you have a test and don’t know whether to submit your score, OR if you are wondering whether to take a test to optimize your college admission outcomes, schedule your introductory phone call with us HERE.
