Parenting Daily

Do the letters S.A.T. and A.C.T. still make your stomach cramp? Bring back bad memories of No. 2 pencils and sleepless nights waiting for your scores to arrive in the mail? Well, there’s some good news and some bad news. If you’ve been paying attention over the past few years, you may have heard that some colleges and universities are now making the SATs and ACTs optional. So, the bad news first: 20 years from now, you and your kids won’t necessarily be able to commiserate about the admission test anxieties you both had. I’ll pause for you to shed a tear.

But maybe that’s good news. A popular reason for dropping the test? Because we just aren’t sure they really predict much. Admission boards once weighed these tests heavily, believing they were strong indicators of college success. Obviously, an institution of higher education is also a business. They need to attract more students in order to survive. The better the reputation, the better their chances of always being wanted, and never having to worry too much about how the bills are going to get paid.

In recent years, though, more studies have been released showing that the tests aren’t necessarily fair. Whites tend to do better on the standardized admission tests than minorities. In an increasingly diverse society, a majority-White student population doesn’t serve any good purpose that I, personally, can think of. I don’t think it makes sense from a business standpoint, either. This is why I think many schools are either making the tests optional or dropping them altogether.

As of now, approximately 750 schools are test-optional. I expect this number to increase in the coming years. I do not expect the SAT and ACT to quietly go away but I do think major overhauls of the tests are necessary if they are to stay relevant in the long-term.

So if you have a teen who’s getting ready to go through the admission test prep classes or sign up for the tests, see if they know some schools are test optional. Especially if your teen is of a minority or diverse culture (this is me trying to be politically correct even though it sounds awkward) or has a great deal of test anxiety, it could be one less stressor on them during a period of life that is already stress-ridden enough! Now how about tuition-optional schools?!

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