Does the SAT Still Matter?
I hate taking tests, always have. It didn’t matter how well prepared I was-- when the teacher handed out the blue test booklet or the multiple choice answer sheet, my heart would drop and my body would flood with panic. I had friends who loved tests, would sit up a little straighter with their sharpened pencils --that just wasn’t me. The panic would always dissipate a minute or two into the test, but I never could figure out how to skip that panic altogether.
There are few tests that are as hyped, as panic-inducing, as written about as the SAT. It is a billion dollar industry (in 2017 The College Board--the “non-profit” administrator of the SAT -- generated over $1.1 billion in revenue. And that’s not counting all the private courses and test prep tutors that affluent families engage to improve scores). And for decades, The College Board and the elite schools that use the SAT to justify their admissions practices have argued that it is an essential part of assessing an applicant's potential for success. Their claim is that SAT scores are a better predictor of who will graduate from college than other factors. The truth is that there is a very minor correlation between SAT score and GPA and graduation rate, but the SAT on its own doesn’t actually predict much.
A much bigger truth is that the SAT is fundamentally flawed and biased. Just Google “SAT” and you’ll find article after article examining its inherent bias and racism against black and brown students and its inherent favor for affluent kids. Go a little further and you’ll find that the data of The College Board shows these issues in clear black and white numbers. This has led to an ongoing movement to do away with the SAT and standardized testing in general.
In the midst of the pandemic, almost all US colleges and universities went test-optional. Test date cancellations and testing center closings all but necessitated this. Most of these schools are staying test-optional for the 2021-2022 application cycle, in recognition that this year’s rising seniors faced immense disruption in their high school careers. And there’s also the not inconsequential truth that applications at competitive schools that normally require standardized tests went through the roof in last year’s admissions cycle (Colgate’s applications went up by 104%!). These record application numbers help out in the… you guessed it, rankings. (Though this is a bit of a catch-22 because rankings also love SAT scores.)
So when our clients ask us, “does the SAT still matter?,” we would really love to say no. Sadly, the answer, like standardized tests themselves, is murky.
If you’re a rising senior, the SAT is likely to be optional anywhere you apply in the coming admissions cycle. We wish we could say that means don’t worry about it! But as we said above, it’s murky: most schools that were not test-optional prior to 2020 used the SAT for two purposes-- admissions and merit aid. They have secret formulas that they use to award merit aid, and SAT scores are almost always a factor. The murkiness comes from the fact that while they went test-optional for admissions, not all of them went test-optional for merit aid… and this information wasn’t shared. So there are lots of students who didn’t submit scores, got admitted to great schools, but were only considered for aid based on their FAFSA and other financial information, not their academic achievements and potential.
For younger students, it’s even more complicated. While the University of California system is no longer considering the SAT or ACT in its admissions process (this is a really, really big deal and advocates for doing away with the SAT and ACT altogether hope it’s just the tip of the iceberg), it remains to be seen if schools that went test-optional in the pandemic will stay test-optional long term.
So what’s our advice? Well, that depends. Do you have a lot of test anxiety or are they no big deal? Are you likely to qualify for merit aid and is this an important piece of your college-funding plan? Are you planning to apply to schools that may start requiring SAT and ACT scores again?
These are big questions and we would love to help you sort them out. Give us a call (617.851.9975) or send an email to info@yourmayfirst.com and let’s chat.
