Does class of 2023 need SAT
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Anne Lepesant Show by Anne Lepesant 28May 04th, 2022 AAC, ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, College, Ivy League, NCAA Division I Mid-Major, NCAA Division II, News, Pac-12, SEC The NCAA Eligibility Center has announced it is extending the COVID-19 waiver that was first put into place in April 2020 in response to the disruptions to academic life caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally meant to provide relief for the high school class of 2020, its provisions were extended to the classes of 2021 and 2022 in April 2021. Now, student-athletes entering college in the 2023-24 school year will enjoy the same benefits. The provisions of the waiver include: SAT or ACT test scores: the NCAA Eligibility Center has eliminated the SAT/ACT score as a requirement of academic eligibility. With the pandemic raging in the spring of 2020, test centers closed and students were unable to sit for the required standardized tests. Universities responded by dropping testing requirements – some for a trial period, some permanently – and the NCAA quickly followed suit. The NCAA Standardized Test Score Task Force was established in April 2021 to conduct a review of its testing requirements within the initial-eligibility process. It focused on (1) Initiatives to advance racial equity (a review of testing requirements had been identified as one of the NCAA’s eight action items to advance racial equity in the summer of 2020); (2) Higher education’s shifting position on standardized tests for admissions processes; and (3) Ongoing NCAA Standards Evaluation. In April 2022, the Standardized Test Score Task Force recommended the permanent removal of the test score requirement. Its recommendation will be voted on at the NCAA Convention, which will take place from January 11-14, 2023, in San Antonio, Texas. The NCAA is quick to point out that students may still need to take the SAT for admission to a particular college or university or for an academic scholarship that might complement an athletic grant, so it is up to the student to determine whether or not to take the test. Without the SAT or ACT, together which with a student’s GPA used to be the basis of a sliding scale of academic eligibility, the NCAA will now determine academic status by the GPA alone. Prospective student-athletes must achieve a GPA of 2.3 in the 16 core courses for Division I and a 2.2 for Division II. Distance or virtual learning: When schooling went online, the NCAA accepted courses taken in distance, e-learning or hybrid programs offered by their high schools, without doing a separate review of those programs. That directive will continue. “Students may complete their NCAA-approved core courses through the channels of instruction provided or recommended by their school, district or state department of education.” Pass/fail grades: Pass/fail grades on a student’s transcript can only help the student. “If the student’s core-course GPA would increase by assigning a value of 2.300, this value will be assigned to the passed courses. However, if the student’s core-course GPA would decrease by including the 2.300 value for passed courses, the student’s core-course GPA will be calculated based only on courses with assigned letter grades from previous terms (credit from these courses will still be applied toward the student’s core-course requirements).” Before 2020, “pass” on a student’s transcript was treated as the high school’s lowest passing grade, most often a D, and was assigned a value of 1.0. The virtual learning and P/F grades provisions will extend to freshmen and sophomores, as well. For example, any online classes and P/F grades on their transcript will still be treated favorably to the student through their graduation in 2025. The provisions of the waiver are outlined here. About Anne LepesantAnne Lepesant Anne Lepesant is the mother of four daughters, all of whom swam in college. With an undergraduate degree from Princeton (where she was an all-Ivy tennis player) and an MBA from INSEAD, she worked for many years in the financial industry, both in France and the U.S. Anne is currently … Read More » While the Coronavirus pandemic has subsided here in the United States, it’s an understatement to say that the college admissions landscape has been drastically changed because of it. Just like every other industry, temporary changes that were made to accommodate closures, social distancing, and supply chain disruptions, have become permanent. There is no greater impact to the college admissions process than the test optional policy that many colleges adopted. If you’re a high school junior or high school senior, you may find that you no longer need to submit an SAT or ACT score to the colleges you plan to apply to. While this may be the first school year under the “new normal” circumstances, students that are considering college after their high school graduation need to be extra considerate of where they plan to apply and the testing policies at the different schools. Colleges Not Requiring SAT or ACTFor the third consecutive admissions cycle, FairTest.org is reporting that more than 1,700 colleges and universities will remain test optional for prospective students, and they anticipate that the number will keep increasing, according to Higher Ed Dive. Last year’s test optional colleges numbered over 1,800. Among that list of schools are some of the most prestigious institutions in the country, such as Harvard, Stanford, and Yale. Higher Ed Dive reports that colleges, like the University of North Carolina, intend to remain test optional through at least 2024, citing an effort to remain “competitive with peer institutions.” It should be noted that the pandemic is not solely responsible for this shift to test optional. In fact, some colleges have been test optional since 1970, Bowdoin College being the first college to do so. However, it became a little more “mainstream” from 2015 – 2019, when institutions like George Washington University and University of Chicago permanently changed their testing requirements for admissions.Take a look at the Test Optional Colleges for the 2022 – 23 admissions cycle from College Curators. Debate Over Test Optional College AdmissionsLong before the pandemic, standardized test scores in college admissions was a topic of debate in higher education – and today, the debate continues. Some experts believe that the admissions test requirement contributes to systemic racism and classism. Students that lack the resources for adequate test prep are at a disadvantage compared to those that can hire tutors and take extra test prep courses. As a result, colleges and universities across the country lack diversity that would otherwise exist were not these structures in place.On the other hand, others support that they’re necessary to prepare students for the academic rigor of college and are still verifiable indicators of college success. Ultimately, they don’t create the diverse student bodies that is promised when you eliminate test score requirements because systemic racism and classism exist in many facets of the college admissions process, not just in standardized testing. Are Students Going Test Optional?While the number of schools going test optional is increasing, the number of students choosing to do so is not. The Wall Street Journal reports that 200,000 more students in the Class of 2022 took the SAT compared to the Class of 2021. Similarly, the ACT was taken 2.71 million times during the 2021 – 22 school year, up from 2.69 million for the previous school year. Students are hoping that by sending their test scores to test optional schools, they will have an edge over those students who opted out. At the same time, more and more states are requiring students to take standardized tests in order to graduate, reports The Wall Street Journal. Test optional schools give students just that – options. They can first take the standardized tests and determine whether their scores are worth sending. With that, how can high school juniors and high school seniors approach the 2022 – 23 testing year?
To Test? Or Not to Test? That is the QuestionThough going test optional may have been meant to eliminate stress from the college admissions process, it has only added to it for many students. Students have to consider if it’s worth it to spend time and money prepping for standardized tests when they may only be applying to test optional schools. As you make plans for your college admissions journey, it will be helpful in your decision-making process to have conversations about standardized testing with people that know you as well as experts in the field. Each of these resources is also vital to all components of your college search and application process, not just standardized testing. Share your plans, questions, and concerns with these individuals. However, as it pertains to the SAT and ACT, consider the following:
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