How COVID-19 Changed College Admissions Forever

As many high schoolers are dealing with the learning curve of virtual learning, there is one group of students worried more about their future plans than the possibility of a homecoming dance. The high school class of 2021 embraced the changes made at the end of their junior year; however, the pandemic spared no one during its course here in the United States, rising seniors included. 

Merit-based scholarships or college acceptance in general is heavily reliant on your standardized test scores on the SAT and ACT. Previously, these scores were the most important requirement. With all the challenges brought by the Coronavirus, this has changed. 

The main challenge applicants and high schoolers alike faced across the country was the limited amount of testing opportunities either test provided due to social distancing mandates. Following the CDC’s strict guidelines on social distancing and limited gatherings, the initial stages of the pandemic had a dark foreseeable future. Being that this was prime testing season for the class of 2021, colleges across the country made a historic move: making their applications test-optional. 

Test-optional allows for students to choose whether or not they want to submit their standardized test scores without any penalization. Colleges across the country made this change not only to their regular applications, but to their merit-based scholarships and grants as well. This will allow students to ease the constraint on taking their standardized test at the beginning of their senior year, as these tests have continued to be cancelled and delayed. 

This move is critiqued by a lot of young college students, as the integrity of the process of being accepted into college is possibly on the line. Another move made by the UC system in California has these students’ fears being propelled into further question. On May 21, the system announced they’d be making not only the class of ‘21 and ‘22 test-optional, but the following classes to become test-blind, negating all admitted standardized test scores [Forbes].

Test-optional or not, students are still continuing to try and cram one last, or first, SAT/ACT as a good score may set themselves aside from the others; something that may be hard to do in the year 2020.