Geeky confession time: I, personally, find it riveting and fun to learn everything there is to know about the SAT and ACT (it is my job, after all!). But look, I know that many teens do NOT share that odd passion. In fact, many of them wish they could just…skip those pesky standardized tests altogether.
And during the COVID-19 pandemic, a certain segment of high schoolers saw that wish come true. Lots of colleges went test-optional because many testing centers shut down due to fears of COVID spreading, or because test dates would be cancelled spontaneously. This kicked off a trend of many school relaxing their testing policies for a few years. Some of the schools on your list may well have been part of that trend.
That makes it pretty tempting to just…forget about that ACT or SAT. After all, without having to set aside time for test prep, you could focus on your coursework, extracurriculars and still have time for TikTok. It might even make you think you should cut the schools on your list that ARE still requiring the tests.
But before you jump at the chance to burn your test prep books and pick back up your Fortnite controller, I need to give you a reality check. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but again, it’s my professional duty to give you the information you need to get into college, not tell you what you want to hear.
ARTICLE CONTENTS
1. Schools are returning to testing
2. What if *some* of your colleges require testing?
3. Should you sign up for the SAT/ACT if of your schools are test-optional?
4. Test optional vs. test blind
5. Is the SAT/ACT required for financial aid?
1. Schools are returning to testing
Here’s the first inconvenient truth I’m obligated to share with you: the test-optional wave seems to be starting to recede, or at least to slow down. Recently, several ivy-league schools have started requiring tests against: Dartmouth, MIT, and most recently, Yale.
Why are they returning to the SAT/ACT? In part because of the finding (confirmed in a 2023 study by Harvard economists) that test scores can help identify academic talent from disadvantaged communities. Yes, testing has its biases, but it’s possible that other parts of the college application (recommendation letters by well-resourced teachers; enriching afterschool activities) are more likely to give privileged kids an unfair leg up than an SAT or ACT score.
2. What if *some* of your colleges require testing?
Maybe SOME schools on your list are test-optional, but not all of them are. The thing to remember here is that you made that list of schools for a reason—they’re the ones that inspire you and the ones that “fit” you. They’re the ones you can see yourself finding your people at and pursuing your dreams at.
College lasts a LOT longer than test prep does. So please: think twice before you drop any of those carefully-chosen schools. Let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater here.
3. Should you sign up for the SAT/ACT if ALL of your schools are test-optional?
But what if you have the simplest possible situation—what if ALL of the colleges you’re applying to are test optional?
Even if every single one of the schools you’re applying to is “test optional,” unfortunately, that DOESN’T necessarily mean that you should skip the test—or the test prep. In fact, there may even be cases in which it actually becomes MORE important for you to crush that SAT or ACT when your dream school is going test-optional—which I’ll explain at the end of this post. To get why, you need to start by understanding this:
“test-optional” does NOT mean “test blind”!
4. Test optional vs. test blind
“Test Optional” means you don’t HAVE to submit a test score if you can’t or if you prefer not to.
That said, the admissions office will consider your score if you send it, and usually, a significant majority of applicants DO still send in test scores. If you have a good test score, it can bring up your application’s strength if your grades or academic rigor are lacking. Conversely, if you elect not to send in a score, all your other admission factors will count more heavily. That might hurt your application—or it might not. (I help you figure out which camp you fall into in this post.)
“Test Blind,” on the other hand means that college or university will not even look at your scores, no matter what.
In other words, even if you scored a perfect 1600 on the SAT or 36 on the ACT, if the college is “test blind” (or “test free”), they will not even look at it. It will not count. You might as well not have sent it in. Right now, very few schools are “test blind”—even for the class of 2025. And many of these still have GPA requirements that a student must surpass in order to be eligible to not send in scores.
And there’s one more very important factor to consider before you start even getting into these fine points:
5. Is the SAT/ACT required for financial aid?
You may be able to get into a given college without submitting a test score, but if you’re in need of financial aid, merit aid, or independent scholarships, many of THOSE will want to see a test score. So skipping that test might mean missing out on a lot of important opportunities.
But again, let’s say you DON’T need those things, AND all of the schools on your list are test-optional. NOW can you toss your flash cards?
Not quite.
Sorry.
Because now that we’ve defined some key terms, I have to explain how they actually affect admissions:
Even at test-optional schools, “easier to apply” does NOT mean “easier to get in”!
The whole point of some colleges opting to go “test optional” is that they want to allow more students to apply without an extra hurdle. They don’t want to turn away a candidate because that student couldn’t afford to pay for and travel to a testing location. In the wake of COVID-19, when multiple test sittings and test centers had canceled and closed, some universities went test optional as a way of relieving stress if you truly couldn’t get yourself to an open testing facility.
The idea, in short, is that even if your testing center was closed for your only two test dates in your rural location, you still can apply to your dream college or university and have a shot of getting in. Test optional higher educational institutions don’t want a barrier you truly couldn’t control to keep you from applying. Which seems fair to me.
That said, if we now remove a hurdle to applying, guess what happens?
If you said “more people apply”—you’d be RIGHT!
In fact, my favorite example of how “easier to apply” does NOT mean “easier to get in” is the case of the University of Chicago. In 2018, U Chicago went test optional. First of all, over 80% of applicants still DID submit test scores. And second of all, you know what happened? Their admissions rate went DOWN, from 7.2% of applicants being admitted to only 5.9% of applicants being admitted. And you know what else happened? Their average SAT score actually INCREASED by 15 points!
By taking out the requirement of sending in a test score, they allowed more students to apply, giving them their most highly selective incoming class to date! Notice: the caliber of student who got in did not go down; it went up.
The only conclusion here is that if a student did NOT submit a score, it must have meant that student was basically a ROCK STAR on all the other admission factors, and that those other factors (grades, rigor, activities, essays, character, etc) were so outstanding that they could stand by themselves and still get that student admitted. And a test score wouldn’t have told the admissions committee anything they didn’t already know about the student’s ability.
So if ALL of your schools are test optional, it’s likely that all of them just got HARDER to get into. Especially in the current circumstances, where EVERYONE recently faced a challenging couple of years—and many people experienced academic gaps in their learning during those pivotal early teen years. Sorry—you weren’t the only one fantasizing about blowing off test prep.
So, the answer to the question of whether “test optional” really means that standardized tests are suddenly totally skippable is unfortunately not a clear yes or no.
It’s a maybe—it depends on YOU.
If your application will stand out even without a test score, even in a MORE competitive field, then test-optional might work for you. But if the test score will boost your overall competitiveness, well, maybe four years at your dream school is worth going through with your testing plans.
However, to even BEGIN to answer this question, we need to take a moment to understand some VERY IMPORTANT THINGS: namely, what’s important in college admissions in the first place? How does taking out a test score affect the way your application will be evaluated? Will those factors help you or hurt you?
Remember that I’ve got a whole post walking you through these factorS (CLICK HERE TO READ IT).
It’s got a complete checklist for how to take your individual circumstances—your application’s strengths and weaknesses and your college list—and make a decision about whether you can REALLY skip those tests.
If you can? Congratulations! (Not least because it almost certainly means you’ve been putting in the work in school and are reaping the rewards, as well as rocking a range of achievements in cool extracurriculars and hobbies you’re passionate about—way to go!)
But even if skipping the test ISN’T right for you, it’s still going to give you peace of mind to KNOW that you’ve made the best decision possible. Yes, you might need to spend some of the time that you COULD be sending memes to your group chat hitting the test prep books instead. But when you get into that dream school? I bet you won’t regret it.
If you fall into this second camp, and would like help creating a completely customized test prep plan, that’s my forte.
