As more and more universities become test-optional for their applicants, a collective sigh of relief can be heard from high school seniors across the country. The SAT specifically, is something that teachers and administrators start to prepare us for as early as middle school, in ways of the PSAT. They drill into our minds that the SAT is the most important thing we will have to do in high school and that it determines our future when that simply isn’t the truth. All the ACT and SAT do is test your ability to master the test itself.
While the ACT is optional and isn’t necessarily expected by the majority of universities, the SAT is the main test that “test mandatory” institutes typically look for. Whether you get an 830 or 1500, these tests place a physical number on a student’s level of intelligence. – there aren’t a ton of these left, most elite universities and even lower-tier ones are test-optional.
The person who scores the 830 could have an unimaginably high GPA, tons of extracurriculars, service hours and amazing letters of recommendation from their teachers, yet not get accepted to the school they’ve worked to get into based on a mere triple-digit number. – then they probably wouldn’t submit it.
Over half of students have to take the SAT more than once in the attempt to even be considered by the school they really want. Then when they go to schedule their retake, they’re slapped with that $55 charge. After the balance is paid, you still have to drag yourself to some high school you’re unfamiliar with at 8:30 a.m. on some random Saturday.
Now, it would be wrong of me to say these tests are useless 100% of the time. For instance, Ivy League schools demand a near-perfect score along with a high GPA, extracurriculars, recommendations, etc. to even be considered for these prestigious schools. Even with that in mind, say you meet all those expectations, you’d think you’re definitely getting in, sadly that’s not always the case. All that hard work goes down the drain when you get the dreaded rejection email.
Seeing the words “test-optional” on the Common App under a school you like can be like a breath of fresh air to someone with a “low score”. Unfortunately, the majority of schools that are very well known in Florida like USF or UF, or schools that have more preferable programs, require the SAT. As a current senior, I wasn’t fortunate enough to escape the wrath of standardized testing, all I can do now is hope for the best for incoming students who are looking to apply to colleges.
