NEWS: UC schools are dropping SAT requirement for class of 2021

[Anonymous]

Board of regents released a statement last night saying SAT scores not be required for students in the Class of 2021, due to testing difficulties related to Covid19.

Will other colleges and universities follow suit?

As the parent of a junior who was supposed to take the March SAT but got canceled, I certainly hope so.

[Anonymous]

https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/press-room/uc-eases-admissions-requirements-help-students-families-wake-covid-19

[Anonymous]

How will merit awards work without SAT/ACT scores?

[Anonymous]

Schools can still consider scores for admission, correct? Or does dropping the requirement mean schools won't look at them at all?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How will merit awards work without SAT/ACT scores?

Students applying for fall 2021 are not precluded from taking standardized tests (SAT or ACT) and sending scores if they are able. Doing so can support their statewide UC eligibility, application for certain scholarships, and help them fulfill some University graduation requirements. Campuses will adjust their internal processes accordingly to ensure that no student is harmed in admissions selection should they not submit a test score. This modification to the test requirement is not intended as an admissions policy shift but is rather a temporary accommodation driven by the current extraordinary circumstances.

https://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/response-covid-19.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Schools can still consider scores for admission, correct? Or does dropping the requirement mean schools won't look at them at all?

They can consider them.

[Anonymous]

If the university can still consider SAT/ACT scores for students who submit then, doesn’t that put students who don’t submit at a disadvantage?

Let’s say you have two applicants who are equally qualified....but one submits a stellar SAT score, and one submits no score at all. Wouldn’t they be more likely
to admit the student with the strong test score?

Wondering if this change is more of a talking point than an actual change. Unless the process is “SAT blind”, I don’t see how it wouldn’t still be an advantage to submit test scores.

Thoughts?

[Anonymous]

"I see your hobbies are drinking, smoking weed and all types of ill sh*t. Admitted!"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If the university can still consider SAT/ACT scores for students who submit then, doesn’t that put students who don’t submit at a disadvantage?

Let’s say you have two applicants who are equally qualified....but one submits a stellar SAT score, and one submits no score at all. Wouldn’t they be more likely
to admit the student with the strong test score?

Wondering if this change is more of a talking point than an actual change. Unless the process is “SAT blind”, I don’t see how it wouldn’t still be an advantage to submit test scores.

Thoughts?

Test-optional colleges have a method for evaluating students. No idea what that is, but they UCs will have to come up with a system.

I do think you have a point. The website is emphatic that applicants can't be disadvantaged for not submitting scores. I hate to say it, but then GPA is everything. However, I don't think they're evaluating two apps side by side, same everything but one with test score.

I gather there are factions within the UC Regents both for and against standardized testing. The finding this spring recommending keeping the tests due to grade inflation at some subset of California high schools was a surprise to the authors, apparently.

[Anonymous]

"The website is emphatic that applicants can't be disadvantaged for not submitting scores."

Does this mean that the UC universities will be evaluating applications differently from the way that other test optional colleges do it?

I've always assumed that test optional policies primarily operate to benefit applicants from underrepresented minorities, first generation college students, recruited athletes, and so on, so that ordinary students from upper middle class families in DC, Maryland and Virginia don't usually benefit from those policies. Am I wrong?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If the university can still consider SAT/ACT scores for students who submit then, doesn’t that put students who don’t submit at a disadvantage?

Let’s say you have two applicants who are equally qualified....but one submits a stellar SAT score, and one submits no score at all. Wouldn’t they be more likely
to admit the student with the strong test score?

Wondering if this change is more of a talking point than an actual change. Unless the process is “SAT blind”, I don’t see how it wouldn’t still be an advantage to submit test scores.

Thoughts?

Your instincts are correct. In the recent past, a number of schools have adopted this policy as a way 1) to increase diversity without explicitly abandoning their admissions requirements in re quality/rigor. Nearly anyone can get an impressive high GPA these days, owing to widespread rampant grade inflation. So a test-optional school can admit otherwise weak standardized test-takers without compromising the average GPA (or test scores) of admitted/enrolled students.

The second reason schools have adopted this optional test score policy is that they know the kids with good test scores will furnish them, and the applicants with mediocre or poor scores won't. Thus, the school will be able to report higher average test scores.

Lookie here, Ma. My USNWR ranking just went up! It's like magic!

I don't think this will affect the UC schools that much. It may, at the margins, enhance enrollment of favored minority groups -- the UC schools have been looking for a way around the law for years now, in order to discriminate in favor of favored groups -- but you have to believe that the least favored of all groups, Asian Americans, will continue to submit their test scores. They'd be crazy not to do so.

[Anonymous]

How about the kid with the relatively lower GPA (like a 3.5-3.6) and high test scores - does test optional help or hurt? Is a test optional college, say top 50, more willing to make the tradeoff, take an applicant with low gpa and high scores, to offest the applicants they will take with high gpa and no scores? Or is it the other way around, that no one without a high gpa has a chance?

[Anonymous]

Admissions become even more “holistic,” meaning ECs and essays, and recos are more important.

[Anonymous]

And what will happen, practically speaking, is that good testers will take the tests and submit scores anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If the university can still consider SAT/ACT scores for students who submit then, doesn’t that put students who don’t submit at a disadvantage?

Let’s say you have two applicants who are equally qualified....but one submits a stellar SAT score, and one submits no score at all. Wouldn’t they be more likely
to admit the student with the strong test score?

Wondering if this change is more of a talking point than an actual change. Unless the process is “SAT blind”, I don’t see how it wouldn’t still be an advantage to submit test scores.

Thoughts?

Your instincts are correct. In the recent past, a number of schools have adopted this policy as a way 1) to increase diversity without explicitly abandoning their admissions requirements in re quality/rigor. Nearly anyone can get an impressive high GPA these days, owing to widespread rampant grade inflation. So a test-optional school can admit otherwise weak standardized test-takers without compromising the average GPA (or test scores) of admitted/enrolled students.

The second reason schools have adopted this optional test score policy is that they know the kids with good test scores will furnish them, and the applicants with mediocre or poor scores won't. Thus, the school will be able to report higher average test scores.

Lookie here, Ma. My USNWR ranking just went up! It's like magic!

I don't think this will affect the UC schools that much. It may, at the margins, enhance enrollment of favored minority groups -- the UC schools have been looking for a way around the law for years now, in order to discriminate in favor of favored groups -- but you have to believe that the least favored of all groups, Asian Americans, will continue to submit their test scores. They'd be crazy not to do so.

I'm not saying you are wrong, but do you actually KNOW how the test optional policies work in practice at most colleges? I have not been able to find anything from someone inside a college admissions office to confirm or refute your view.

Also, "discriminate" is not the word I would choose to describe efforts to diversify the student body, but I understand that you and I may disagree on this issue.