A New Trend: Colleges Dropping SAT & ACT

There is a potential trend brewing in the competitive world of college admission: colleges dropping standardized tests (SAT and ACT) from their admission requirements. For years high school students with dreams of going to college fretted over taking such tests. Many feared that their four years of high school performance would be wiped out with one bad performance on one test but the scenario is changing.

Last week Wake Forest University (one of the top 30 schools in the annual U.S. News & World Report on college rankings) joined the growing list of mostly small liberal arts colleges that will no longer require applicants to take the SAT or ACT. Smith College in Massachusetts
also announced similar decision early this month. These schools believe that the SAT is not a good predictor of college success. Instead they will rely more heavily on each applicant's high school transcript, personal interview, and extracurricular activities.

This trend has sparked off a nation-wide debate on pros and cons of the standardized tests. Standardized tests are often the only way colleges can directly measure students from different schools from various states. Large universities — which may have tens of thousands of applications — rely on them to have a cut-off point and concentrate on a selective bunch of students.

Probably, for the time being, most college admission boards would take a wait-and-see approach to this trend and closely watch these 'bold' schools doing away with requirements for a standardized test. This trend may eventually make it easier for potentially deserving students to get into college without the stressful journey in the midst of other academic commitments in school and also may put pressure on the test companies to develop tests with more accurate measures and fewer biases.

SAT and ACT Dates This Semester

Here are dates for SAT and ACT Tests this semester:
SAT dates: March 1, May 3, June 7;
ACT dates: April 12, June 14;

For dates, registration and other details, visit collegeboard.com and ACTstudent.org. US (regular) registration deadlines usually fall one month before a test date.

Juniors who are planning to apply to four-year colleges and universities should be thinking in terms of taking the SAT Reasoning Test and/or ACT college extrance exam this coming spring. Some of you may also take one or two SAT subject tests.

Note the following:
o Colleges accept both SAT and ACT scores.
o It's not wise to take tests multitude of times. Students rarely raise their scores simply by
taking the test over and over. It's also not a wise decision to take the test in middle school.
o SAT reports results of all tests to colleges. ACT allows you to select the best one to send to colleges.
o A good strategy would be:
(i) To prepare well during Freshman, Sophomore and Junior years,
(ii) To take PSAT in Sophomore year (usually in October),
(iii) Good preparation during summer after Sophomore year.
(iv) To take both SAT and ACT one time each on Spring dates of Junior year,
(v) Select whichever test you scored higher and have a good preparation during Summer after your Junior year.
(vi) A second attempt on whichever test you scored higher on a Fall date during Senior year.