I was recommended to these forums and appreciate all the insight. I am looking for some neutral (meaning not from a tutor or prep company) advice. My daughter is a Junior and a terrible standardized test taker. Between her test anxiety, accommodations and the fact that her past 2 tests have been cancelled (COVID in our area still has us completely virtual and uncertain), she would at this point rather apply to all test optional schools then engage in more prep and cancellations.
Her stats:
Maryland Resident
4 APs: Physics, Biology, Environmental, Spanish
Remaining classes all Honors
GPA: UW 3.7, W: 4.4
Major: Biology
Solid ECs and Community Service
She is planning to apply to mostly small LACs (Muhlenburg, Dusquene, College of Wooster, Susquehanna), and a few others (Townson, Salisbury, York, WestChester, St. Joes.). At this point, every school on her list is already test optional. The Naviance grid have them all in her “safety” zone. However, one college consultant I spoke to said test optional isn’t really test optional and not providing a score will effect merit aid, even though the LACs at their open houses say otherwise.
I am sorry for the long post, I just don’t know whether to push her to prep for and take a test, even though chances are we will not report the score. Any insights or advice?
My daughter applied test optional and was accepted early into VCU and SDSU. She received a Dean’s scholarship to VCU. If your child doesn’t take the SAT or ACT and the schools are test optional I don’t think that will affect her getting accepted.
Thank you. I am hearing this a lot but wonder if that was just because Fall 2021 admissions were such a special circumstance. Congrats to her (and you.)
Getting your info directly from the colleges themselves is the way to go, so if they say merit awards aren’t tied to reporting a test score, I would take them at their word.
You might also reach out to the schools (or look on their websites this summer) to make sure they will remain test optional for Class of 2022, but some of the schools on your list were TO pre-pandemic so a fairly safe bet those will stay that way.
Thank you. I have confirmed that almost every school on her list (except for two at this point) were already test optional and will remain so. The college counselor I spoke to said that for our area, she still always recommends sending a test score. I just don’t know if that is to sell more test prep packages.
Pre-pandemic there was some question about whether some schools (more of the highly selective types) were really test optional, especially for relatively affluent students. I’m not sure if that might describe your kid’s situation and/or the type of client the counselor works with.
IMO things are different now wrt TO, and will likely stay that way for the immediate time being. There’s any number of threads on CC where this is being discussed, including these:
The most selective college on your list accepts 54% of applicants, and several of them take anywhere from 62% to 72%. Your daughter’s GPA and rigor of classes is way above average. Based on that only, I would not worry about the tests, she simply won’t need that additional proof of her qualifications.
On the other hand, some “terrible test takers” are excellent test takers with some kind of an issue that a good test coach could diagnose within an hour or two. That’s in case some much more selective colleges were to be added to your list. I never believed these stories of ACT going up from 29 to 34 within a few months (and SAT climbing from 1360 to 1510) until it happened close to home. Whether it is worth the money and time depends on the individual circumstances.
Here is my humble opinion, based on our recent experience with daughter… All schools she applied to either had been or went to (b/c of covid) test optional. We ended up not even stressing about taking the ACT and trying to raise her score. No studying, no tutors, no pressure, etc. Our daughter too is a great student nut not strong on standardized test, and also got anxious about them. She got into all of her college choices, and with fantastic merit packages. Going test optional was a complete non issue for us. And it eliminated a stress and time component that our son had to go through 3 years prior. So my opinion there is no reason to submit test scores if they’re not going to significantly strengthen your child’s candidacy. Hope that helps.
This is so tremendously helpful, thank you for this! I was also headed in this direction and we were comfortable with it, and then you start doubting yourself when you get conflicting information.
I think 2020 was an outlier. Should the Covid vaccines get on track and Spring testing be available, it’s likely this year will not be like last year ( where kids in many places had zero access).
Will it affect her merit? Possibly. You could ask. But they won’t know until much later. If it was my kid and they tested as you said, I’d have them take the test 1x (just in case).
Some one told me that UPenn this year accepted 24% of kids from the test optional, while 36% of applicants were test optional for the early decision.
There was a kid posted here saying that he was rejected from UPenn ED with ACT 35. What matter the most is your grade, your essay, passion and teacher’s recommendation.
I think so many kids with similar profiles were rejected. You have to be a little different from other students, and you have to be humble. That’s why your essay and extracurricular activities are very important. Type of extracurricular matters too. If that activity is so common, then you are just one of them.
I am a test prep tutor, and in the situation you describe, I see no need for your daughter to prep for tests. The exception might be if a college she is very interested in only gives merit awards if students also submit test scores.
Tests, IMO, are a dinosaur. I can see a time very soon when all but perhaps a handful of colleges will require them. This has been a subject of debate and we don’t have a crystal ball. At any rate, I am all in favor of anything that gives a little more time for high schoolers to be kids.
Based upon the results this year, test optional really does mean test optional. Sounds like regardless of how much prepping she does, she will always be stronger without tests. This year, almost all merit aid has been available to test optional kids. I am sure there were exceptions and there will also be next year - but not enough of them for me to have your daughter test given the information you shared.
Honestly, I think that a lot of the high school counselors have no idea what they’re talking about! Mine would have probably discouraged my son from applying to ANY T20 school, and he got into the most competitive one, early action, and he’s not an underrepresented minority, he had no “geographical advantage”, not first gen, not from a disadvantaged background. He did have a very strong music spike - but the counselor would have had no way to have understood this.
From what I’ve heard, applying test optional hasn’t hurt anyone in both admissions and merit money. She should add a few test-optional reaches to her list.
Does your school college counselor really recommend that students send less than terrific standardized tests scores always to schools that are test optional? Why would she do that?
If these schools are test optional, you don’t have to send the tests and it won’t have an impact especially at those schools that have been test optional anyway.
My D21 took both SAT and ACT and was not happy with her scores. She applied TO to all of her schools (southern LACs). So far she’s heard back from two and was accepted with $20,000+ in merit aid.
I’d recommend you add more test optional reaches for your daughter, maybe adding schools like Denison or Kenyon. She has good stats and could be competitive for schools like these.