Adopting a Fresh Approach Towards “Test-Optional” College Admissions
The ability to show colleges you’re more than a test score is now more important than ever before.
Seemingly every single day since the pandemic arrived another major college has announced they will be test-optional for applications to be admitted to the Class of 2025.
Currently, more than half of all U.S. four-years colleges and universities will be test-optional for the Fall 2021 admission cycle and the numbers continue to increase daily.
These institutions include 85% of the U.S. News “Top 100” national liberal arts colleges, and 60 of the “Top 100” national universities, with such recent and diverse additions as Brown, CalTech, Carnegie Mellon, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Duke, Georgetown, Harvard, Michigan, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Penn State, UPenn, Princeton, Rutgers, Stanford, SUNY, Syracuse, Virginia, Washington University in St. Louis, Williams, and Yale. At this time, there is a test-optional admission option for every type of college and university across the spectrum from large public to small private and from highly selective to less selective.
Remember that test-optional does not necessarily mean test-blind. Test-blind colleges will not look at the SAT or ACT in the admissions process, even if scores are submitted.
What does this massive shift away from standardized testing really mean for your rising high school senior?
What it definitely should not mean is reflexively pressing your student to prep for and take standardized tests anyway because that’s the way college admissions have always worked. For some reason, there is a widespread yet unsubstantiated belief that students who do not submit test scores will somehow be disadvantaged at decision time.
Remember, there is a multi-billion dollar industry built around test preparation and it is in this industry’s best interest to send the message that not providing test scores with your college application will somehow hurt your chances for acceptance.
Beyond the big test prep companies, many school and independent college counselors also continue to advocate test taking. The best explanation for this is that they have no alternative programming options. For school counselors who rely on Naviance, that platform loses even more of its already limited value without test scores. For many in the independent college counseling community, test prep is also an important revenue generating component.
Do not blindly fall for this fear based approach. Well before the onset of the pandemic, colleges questioned the value of SAT and ACT scores as valid predictors of college success. The University of California system decided to drop standardized testing as an admissions requisite prior to the pandemic.
Colleges are properly recognizing there is way too much stress in society today and they are working to ease the burden on college bound students living through this pandemic by rationalizing the admissions process (not to mention the risk of your students being exposed to the virus at a testing site).
Read what Dartmouth published about its decision to go test optional:
“Optional” is not a trick word. It is not a wink that signals a continued institutional preference for the upcoming admissions cycle. This is not a moment for euphemisms or gimmicks; there should be no parsing of intent with this amended testing policy. It is a clear response to an unprecedented moment that requires admission officers to reimagine some of the elements we have historically required as we reassure anxious students about their upcoming applications. ”
ADVICE: RE-IMAGINE COLLEGE ADMISSIONS (The colleges have)!
For years, selective colleges and universities have adopted a holistic approach towards college admission reviews. The hope now is that they can put greater substance into their promise of “holistic” admissions reviews and develop new ways to evaluate an applicant’s past achievement and future potential.
“It is important to note that, while standardized testing has long been a component of our holistic admission process, it has always been one among many components that we consider. Testing can be informative, but is only one part of a much larger and more important story about an individual applicant. ”
Right now, the best advice is to take a step back and try to understand what colleges have always sought to discover about their applicants during the admissions process and then deliver that information to the reviewer. We suggest using social media as the medium for building your digital portfolio.
Click the button and take a careful read of what over 300 college deans had to say about applying to college during the pandemic.
Simultaneous with test-optional announcements and somewhat ironically, we’ve been reading about colleges rescinding admissions based on racist social media posts of admitted students. It seems that the same people who are urging your students to prep for the SAT during the pandemic are also advocating for them to stop posting to social media or make their accounts private in advance of submitting their college applications.
These so-called experts are wrong.
If colleges are rescinding acceptances based on bad social media, then we also know the corollary is absolutely true.
A good social media presence will help with admissions based on one or more of the following key factors:
Character
Family and/or Community Service
Likelihood to Enroll
Unique Skills / Achievements
Don’t waste time preparing for exams that will be less meaningful than ever before. Focus on your unique WHY story; why should a particular college want you to join their community. Get started today.
