In a radio interview with either the dean or undergrad president of Harvard and Boston College (maybe BU?) a few months ago, they both said that they wouldn’t be surprised if full cost of attendance goes up to $100k/year. It’s about $80k/yr now. I would imagine. At about 3% increase annually, that’ll be about $90k/yr by the time 2024 enters college for private schools—at least the many who follow the same COA as Ivy Leagues (USC, Vanderbilt, Northwestern, etc). The lower tiered privates may give you a merit package to stay competitive but I would assume these would be the new rates.
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I’m curious what parents of the class of 2024 think as far as SAT testing and prep. I assume that post-COVID, there will be some schools that go permanently test-optional, but not all. Will less emphasis be put on the tests? (And I do understand that that will put more emphasis on other aspects of the application - but for my own sake I am trying to figure out how much time and emotional energy wilI be devoted to test prep.) am primarily focused on, say, the bottom of the T30, but I’m curious about (generally) private schools in the northeast. Thanks!
I think many schools will permanently see the benefits of remaining test optional. I expect that many of the schools my D24 will apply to will be TO at the time she applies.
With that assumption, and having gone through an extensive search+application+FinAid process for my S20, I will approach the SAT/ACT fairly leisurely. She’ll do the Khan Academy study prep, at her own pace. She’ll probably do a practice test in Winter/Spring '22. Depending on her score, the test she takes in Winter '23 is probably be her final test.
It’s still early in her HS experience, but I expect D24 will have an UW GPA in the 3.5-3.8 range, and a WGPA around 4.0 give or take a couple of tenths. I’ll be happy with that and I think that will be sufficient for her target schools. She’s already a strong writer, so I think her essays will be fine.
I think this will differ for different families. If your student is targeting T40s, I would recommend copious amounts of test prep and practice tests. In a TO world, submitting a 1550 can only be an extra benefit, even if the measure of the benefit is uncertain.
My D24 will probably have 3-4 T40 schools on her list, but at this time only one (UNC) will be a big want. And from the way she feels right now, she’ll be just as pleased to attend UNC as she would schools ranked in the 300s. She is not at all driven by rankings. All she cares about now is how happy can she be there, and will she be able to take classes she’ll like.
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I think it’s too early to know how test scores will be used for our kids class. From the colleges perspective it’s fun to poop on standardized tests, but once you remove them you realize the rest of the data is flawed too. Who wrote this essay? Are these grades inflated? Are mom and dad buying ECs?
I’m not holding my breath, but schools need to learn how to properly weight standardized tests.
btw, with my older kids and their friends I have seen no real bump in scores from early test prep. Seems like 3 months of prep works great. My kids are very active with sports, so I like to have them study/prep over the summer before junior year and test Aug/Sept. YMMV
ETA: standardized tests can be useful for merit aid, so I’m sure my D24 will be prepping because we need the money! 
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I’m not working on the assumptions that things will change in a profound way. I think that from the surface, colleges may continue to do test optional (test-blind at the UCs in CA) because why not, right? How many more incremental applications did they get from kids who normally wouldn’t apply who don’t tend to test well? They made money off the application fees.
But the optional schools will continue to use test scores if they’re available. There is also the national merit commended, finalist, semi-finalist chase and there could be money involved (USC gives 1/2 tuition for NMF if you designated them as your first choice). And because of that, I will likely have my daughter start studying for the PSAT this summer and then decide if ACT or SAT is right for her.
From a personal view and n=1 with S21, I think his 36 ACT helped him get into Brown. He had strong EC’s and high weighted GPA with the course rigor, but I could’ve seen the AOs on the fence with his 3.86 UW GPA. In my view, the 36 ACT was a key deciding factor. Had he not get into Brown, the scores on his ACT helped him to bypass a few required intro classes like writing, etc, so even this year, the test score continued to benefit him at a test-blind university.
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I saw this on twitter and it seems to fit here. Akil Bello appeared in the Varsity Blues documentary as an admissions expert.
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Thanks, all - this is helpful. I was prompted to ask the question because my husband and I have been discussing a bucket list trip (2-3 weeks in Australia) for summer 2022 (Covid permitting.) My son is also committed to a 3.5 week hike of the Appalachian Trail that summer. Since he attends public school, he has a relatively short summer, and those two activities would eat up most of it. Of course, that’s the summer before junior year – prime test prep time. I was hoping you’d all say you think testing is going away 
That being said, these other activities are more important, so /throws hands up in the air/ we’ll see what happens.
Sounds amazing and definitely more worthwhile experiences in summer 2022 than test prep.
I agree with @EconPop @AlwaysMoving and @MommaLue that while test optional/test blind policies will continue, SAT/ACT tests will remain useful for scholarships and placement into courses.
Btw, I had listened to the UC Board of Regents deliberations on May 21, 2020 (discussion in morning, vote in afternoon) regarding phasing out SAT/ACTs.
While the Board ended up unanimously voting to adopt then-President Janet Napolitano’s memo, there was definitely spirited (but respectful) debate.
PHASING OUT TIMING
The reason why test optional for 1st 2 years for COVID-19 is because a lot of HS are going pass/fail, and Academic Council’s Standardized Testing Task Force (STTF) showed that SAT/ACT scores did help identify some Under-Represented Minority (URM) groups.
Test Blind next 2 years - Allows for evaluating a student if score is additive to applicant file.
UC’s OWN TEST:
UC Board members didn’t appear to have the appetite or funding to go the route of developing their own test… and that the same concerns re: test prep for families that can afford it will follow whatever test is used (if at all in the future).
Press release including update for the Nov 2020 injunction: University of California Board of Regents unanimously approved changes to standardized testing requirement for undergraduates | University of California
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@paththanks for the recap! I really hope they don’t have a UC-designed standardized test. Unless other colleges accept UC tests, it’s another set of tests CA kids will need to prep for. You can’t always rely on acceptance by the UCs (as this year has panned our for many top 25 kids that I know) so kids will have to broaden their college app reach. I’m sure we will have to pay for them, so it’s another money suck.
They either figure out how to use the tests we have now or just get rid of them. This one foot in/out approach impacts the students in a negative way. Who wants uncertainty?
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It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out over the next couple of years!
@Marzipane You should try to go on the hike. It could inspire an essay :). But truly, 3.5 weeks is a good investment in your son’s physical and mental health. The summer before my son took his ACT exam (Jr Year), we went on a Disney Cruise, which had 3 days added to it, so we were gone for about 11 days. And then he went to Mexico on a charity mission for 7 days, and I’m sure he procastinated a ton. Still had sufficient time to study for his ACT and did well. He took the ACT in Sept and then in Dec and was done.
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I discovered a new podcast suggested by another parent from Class of 2021–Just Admit It! I think it’s really well-produced and written. They march out former admission officials from major universities, etc. I think between that and the Yale Admissions podcast hosted by current Yale AOs, you should be very enabled to help your kiddos. I listen to it in the car with my D24. When we went on a recent UCI/UCSD campus tour with S21 and his friends, I streamed the Yale one and they all said, “We wished we had known this!” Of course, I told them all to listen to it as they were prepping their app. Luckily, everyone got in where they wanted to get in this year.
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I won’t do the long hike, but he and I are planning to do a three-day hike this summer (the Connecticut portion of the AT.) We had planned to walk a Camino together this past spring break - needless to say, that was put on hold. Hopefully spring break 2022!
@Marzipane He will remember the moments with you and the memories will be there, which you can’t put a price tag on! I hope you get to check these things off your list. It sounds fun! Thinking about these hikes get me so anxious because I’m a wuss. My husband and his friends went on this 1-week hike a while back. It’s a major production, from having the right equipment to planning the load to the actual hike. LOL.
The hikes and trips sound like a lot of fun!
S22 prepped last summer and took the ACT in July, SAT in Aug and did well. His goal was to do well enough on the PSAT for National Merit and he should have that. So we did the test prep with that timing in mind. We just went through practice tests and problems on our own. I will have D24 do the same over the summer of 2022.
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Looks like freshman year is starting to wind down with one month left of school. D24 chose to do this entire year virtually when the option was given to return to classrooms in January. She’s had a good year and is preparing for her AP World History exam. She does not expect to do great on it but chose to take the class for the experience. Next year she is signed up for 3 APs (AP Calc AB, AP Computer Science and AP Psychology), with AP Psych only being taken because it was one of the few classes that fit her schedule. Her sister, D20, didn’t take any APs prior to her junior year and that year was hellish as she ended up taking 5 APs lived on a 2-5 hours of sleep each night by the second semester. Never again! D24 is not as ambitious as her sister and is just exploring as much as possible right now which is fine by me. Both girls will be working this summer and it is nice not having to worry about finding summer activities. Hoping we can move back into a more normal environment next fall.
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D24 took the AP US Gov’t & Politics exam this past Monday. Should know the results/score in July. Her teacher had the students take a practice exam on a Saturday morning at school at the end of March. D24 said she felt much more prepared on Monday than she was for the practice exam.
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Hello, nice to see some familiar '21 faces on this thread. I was pretty traumatized by S21 process and all of the uncertainty but I’m almost over it now. D24 is a very different person from S21 and her process will be very different. I’m happy that she probably won’t be applying to college during a pandemic at least, and she won’t be picking the most competitive majors. D24 is much more likely to want to stay in California so I’m sure the outcome will be very different too.
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Also going to be starting this process up again for a D24 in a few years. My S21 also went after only the CS programs. However, I am actually dreading that difference. Focusing on CS programs really narrowed the field for us. Yes, it was/is extremely competitive, but there are so many competent programs down the line, that success is possible from all of them. With D24, I have no idea how to narrow down the college list. With S21, there is no chance of changing off of the CS track, so we only had to look at one program. With D24, I won’t be shocked if she changes majors multiple times. How to balance that against ‘fit’ and value is something I am not looking forward to.
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@NateandAllisMom @parentkeith Wait, are we putting the band back together for Class of 2024?!?!
Right now I’m feeling like our diaper commercial how the first kid gets the Pampers Swaddlers and then the second kid gets Luvs (although both of my kids were in Swaddlers 
). I’m sure I’ll get back on the wagon shortly. D24 is doing summer school this summer and dabbling in PSAT prep. Her first set of APs will be this upcoming year (they’re not allowed to take APs in freshman year).
D24 wants to follow the path of S21, but her ECs are slightly different. I can imagine her arc will be so much different from S21 in their essays and what’s been important to them. Their strengths are almost polar opposites.
I’m still grateful none of my kids want to do CS. This was the pandemic year admission cycle from heck and you throw in CS, that’s just putting everyone on edge!
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