College admissions results in the time of Covid
Back when Covid became a household word and colleges decided to go test-optional, many individuals, especially high school students and their parents, thought this would help "level the playing field" for everyone applying to college. From now on applicants could be judged on their grades and other accomplishments, and not by a single test score. At the time, I disagreed. Going test-optional, I said, would be a boon for prestigious colleges and universities, but not for students applying to those schools. And the data so far confirms that.
Last spring and summer as students worried about how they would take the ACT or SAT, colleges decided to eliminate that requirement for admissions. Accessibility to test centers was limited, at best, and such a requirement couldn't be met by most high school students. Without standardized test scores, parents and students hoped applications would be judged on grades, extra-curricular activities, teacher recommendations, and essays (note - according to an article on Bloomberg.com, parents are more frequently paying for tutors to “assist” students in composing their college essays). But people didn't fully think through the worst possible consequences of Covid. As an article in InsideHigherEd.com points out:
Pass/Fail grades during Spring 2020 impacted GPA, as did remote learning during the 2020-2021 school year. Then, as I've pointed out, add in remote cheating along with rampant grade inflation, and current GPAs are no longer a good indicator of students' academic performance.
Extracurricular activities were canceled or became remote, eliminating or reducing opportunities for students to participate
Letters of recommendations (LOR) from teachers were less impactful since teachers didn't get the opportunity to know their remote students well enough.
We had been warning parents about this since last fall. GPAs, activities, LORs would all be negatively impacted due to Covid and remote learning. This created a more level playing field only in the sense that high-performing academic students found it difficult to differentiate themselves from average students. To summarize: everyone is now getting A grades and the opportunities for extracurricular activities are limited.
What nobody saw coming, ourselves included, was just how much these changes would affect college admission statistics. Many colleges received double-digit percent increases in the number of applicants. The majority of students who were admitted did submit standardized test scores, and these colleges now look much more competitive than last year or a few years ago. Here are some examples:
Boston College
Average SAT 1495
Acceptance rate 19% (down 8% over three years)
61% of admitted students submitted standardized test scores
Boston University
Average SAT 1421
58% of admitted students submitted standardized test scores
University of Florida
Average SAT 1392
Villanova University
Average SAT 1450
56% of admitted students submitted standardized test scores
Emory University
69% of admitted students submitted standardized test scores
These are a few "top 40" universities that are so excited to post this information it's available just days after acceptances have been sent out.
So, the colleges told everyone that standardized testing was OPTIONAL, yet well over 50% of accepted students sent in scores. Universities are now bragging about these high scores (as they should) and will continue to brag about the very high scores in the years ahead. In addition, with more applicants, the acceptance rates have dropped significantly. Seeing all this, how do current high school juniors and sophomores feel about submitting college applications without very solid ACT or SAT scores to top universities, that are currently accepting only about 20-35% of applicants, the majority of whom DO submit high scores?
Over the past year, the bar to admissions at top schools has been raised, not lowered. Still want to roll the dice and send in your application without a standardized test score?