Admissions is changing, and you should too
How COVID is disrupting college applications (Part 1)
Welcome to the first issue of The Decision. We’re a weekly newsletter with the latest insights, fast facts, and actionable advice on U.S. college admissions for parents. Straight from me, a former Ivy League Admissions Officer.
In this issue, we’ll begin our deep dive into how COVID-19 is transforming the standard admissions process: the good, the bad, and the ugly.
No more SATs/ACTs…can we celebrate? 🍾
Short answer: if you want! Yes, the SAT/ACT requirements have been removed from some admissions processes. But this change is actually a bit more nuanced...so let’s break it down.
COVID-19 is literally disrupting everything - shopping, movies, sports, and even testing centers. You know, those rooms where students sit elbow-to-elbow as bored adults pace around to prevent cheating? That’s a no-go during COVID. And getting home-administered standardized testing to work at scale? Don’t even get me started.
That means SAT/ACT, subject tests, AP exams are now off the table as bread-and-butter requirements.
Some of you might be cheering right now (or popping open the Prosecco if you’re a parent). After all, here’s to a summer without test prep, am I right?
But some of you might also have a little trepidation or outright annoyance. All those hours that you or your child spent working towards that 1600 or 36…for nothing??
Regardless of which camp you’re in, you’re probably asking the same thing.…
Which schools are being affected?
Several universities are taking a short- or even long-term stance against standardized testing. Let’s run through the ones that are on board with this trend. The following institutions have announced changes in the standardized test portion of their admissions process:
University of California (UC) System: waiving the SAT/ACT requirement through 2024. Note: there is speculation that the UCs will have developed their own, unique admissions exam by that point.
Cornell University: waiving the SAT/ACT requirement
Harvard University: waiving SAT subject test and AP exam requirements
Princeton University and the University of Pennsylvania have a long-standing “optional” stance on the submission of SAT subject tests. However, many students continued to submit subject tests and they still figured partially into the holistic review. In light of recent changes in access to subject tests, it is more likely that these tests will become truly “optional” at these institutions in the upcoming admissions cycle as well.
Other institutions that have also waived the SAT/ACT requirement for this admissions cycle: Williams, Amherst, Tufts, Vassar, Boston University, the University of Washington, Pomona, Davidson, Haverford, Tulane, and Case Western Reserve University
Then there’s the Ivy Plus list, which includes the 8 Ivy League schools as well as Stanford, MIT, University of Chicago, and Duke. Although some of these Ivy Plus institutions, including Brown, Yale, Dartmouth, and Stanford, have yet to announce changes to their standardized testing requirements, the continued challenges around administering SAT/ACT tests in-person will likely force their hands.
So, what does this mean for my kid’s admissions chances?
I’ll be 100% honest with you: admissions committees are in uncharted waters - just like you. Seriously. Just the prospect of reading and debating applicants over Zoom is a daunting and unwelcome reality. But given my experience, I want to share my forecast of what I believe this will mean for the holistic review process. My hope is that this information will help you feel way more prepared for the road ahead.
To start this walkthrough, we’re going to revisit the purpose of standardized testing.
Standardized testing is a blunt axe 🪓
We all know tests are part of admissions...but do you know the exact role they play? Take a guess. It’s far more limited than you think.
Here’s a basic mental model of standardized testing:
Colleges determine a minimum score a student needs to succeed at their school. If you score below that number, the idea is that you may not be able to handle the work at that school. So, you get cut from the incoming class. And that’s basically it. The SAT is a way of taking a giant blunt axe to weed out a big chunk of the applicant pool during the first pass. The remainder of the decision rests on other factors.
(Let me know in the comments, did this surprise you?)
Without standardized tests, the remaining items of the holistic review will all increase in relative importance. Those items include the GPA, the interview, the activities list, and the essays. Coincidentally, these are the materials that are best for showcasing your personality and humanity in your applications!
The new blunt axe: GPA
Generally, the GPA (grade point average) is actually used in the first part of that process - another side to that axe blade, if you will, to sift through massive pools of applicants. However, with only this “blunter” tool of GPA, admissions officers will be looking at a larger-than-usual second pool of applicants. But… they’re going to read every one of those applications, right? Not necessarily.
Reading essays, even as fast as some admissions officers do (8 minutes!), is still a time- and labor-intensive process - one for which admission officers were already pressed for time even with a smaller pool of applicants to assess.
Sharper axes: Zoom interview & activities
With this in mind, what I think will happen is that the interview and activities list will become very important tools in this year’s admissions cycle (and potentially beyond that - which I will expound on in later posts).
Now the question is, how on earth can anyone do an interview well over Zoom? And how can anyone be engaging in their extracurriculars to the same degree when most schools aren’t even in session?
It takes some creativity and a little bit of elbow grease, but I know the incoming Class of 2025 has got what it takes to make it work. (Gen Z, I see those Tik Tok skills!) Video is one of the most powerful storytelling mediums, and you must bring your creativity and authenticity to your Zoom interviews.
Interviews might already make your palms sweat (they do for me too!), and watching how you look while you talk on a screen certainly doesn’t help with those nerves. Having a “game plan” - from how you position yourself on the screen, what type of lighting you use, and basic “Zoom etiquette” to more traditional interview prep elements like having your “highlight reel” ready - can help you shine when it’s lights, camera…Zoom time. More on this later! ;)
Isn’t all of this temporary? 🤷🏽♀️
Now, I can try to reassure you 100 more times that things will work out in the end. Yet I recognize that many of you might still be feeling nervous going into this application cycle.
After all, can’t we just wait this out? Won’t things eventually go back to normal? Won’t the ACT just return from the dead on Halloween?
The truth is, no one knows for sure. (Except we definitely know the ACT won’t stage a zombie uprising on Halloween.)
To stay grounded *🤓* in uncertain times like these, we need to pay attention to the trends.
One interesting insight is that many of these changes aren’t completely new. As in many areas of our society, COVID-19 is just shining a light on existing trends, including ones in admissions.
While more and more colleges are waiving the SAT/ACT requirement in response to COVID, top institutions had actually been moving towards this well before the pandemic. COVID is just accelerating this movement. Many people involved in admissions, myself included, had pointed out that the SAT/ACT often didn’t show how smart a student was. It merely indicated how much test prep she could afford.
This, of course, tilted the odds against lower-income students. The College Board, which administers the SAT, tried to address this and invented the “adversity score”: a way to measure challenging life circumstances that could explain a student’s lower score. Unfortunately, there was a big problem. A SAT score from a student with a high adversity score might tell you nothing about that student’s capabilities, and a low adversity score students would presumably do well because they have money for test prep. So—surprise, surprise—this “adversity score” didn’t solve the problem. So a disappearing SAT or ACT might just make the whole process fairer for everyone.
And, parents, if someone ever taunts your child for attending a SAT-free school because it’s “easier” to get in, politely ask them to check their facts. Even the elite schools in the U.S. are leaving the SAT and ACT behind. Bowdoin and the University of Chicago have long been SAT/ACT-optional, and their Ivy+ peers will likely follow in their footsteps post-COVID. The trend: once you say the SAT is whack, there’s no going back.
What should I do next?
The real challenge now is not getting a perfect SAT or ACT score, but appealing to colleges without one. With the remaining materials receiving more importance, it’s critical to make sure yours are outstanding. And that’s why I’m here! In the next two posts of this series, I will walk you through my personal recommendations to ensure your Zoom interview and activities list are the best they can be!
Stay safe and be well,
💌 Emily
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