Three pandemic changes I hope will become permanent

It would be really foolish of me to say that the pandemic is over, or almost over, or close to almost over. There are still a lot of people left to get vaccinated, and there are still some scary new variants that may be resistant to the vaccines. There’s just too much that can still go wrong to start feeling confident.

And yet….

The past month I’ve seen a lot more people get their shots, a lot more kids go to school in person, a lot more people comfortable going out of the house. The pandemic may not be over, but we’re definitely in a new phase. So as the one-year anniversary of our lockdown came up last week, I started to think not just about what I was glad to be done with, but also the new habits and routines I picked up over the past year that I hope stick around.

I also, naturally, thought about changes in college admissions I hope will stick around.

The fall of standardized tests. Maybe “fall” isn’t the right word. There are still ACT and SAT tests, and there are still schools that require them. But the role of those two tests has certainly been diminished, and I don’t think they’re coming back to the prominence they had before. I’ve written about the tests a number of times in the past year:

Opting in and out of standardized tests

Juniors, should you take the next SAT or ACT?

Should you submit your test scores to a test-optional college?

It seriously looks like SAT/ACT testing is going away

Should you bother to take the SAT or ACT?

A more deliberate approach to campus visits. Last fall most college campuses were closed to student and parent tours, and many are still closed to visitors. However, a lot more virtual tours and online opportunities to explore became available. I hope this remains the norm, even after in-person tours get going again. While I think visiting a campus before committing to attend is still the best approach when possible, the past year taught many of us how to be more deliberate with visits. In the future, I hope people will get enough from the online options to feel comfortable applying to schools, and in-person visits will be limited to schools where you’ve already been accepted. I want to see more students touring schools online in the 9th-11th grades, and a lot fewer touring schools in person in the 9th-11th grades.

I hope that in the future, visiting colleges will be a lot more like touring homes for sale. Lots of people (including me) have fun checking out real estate listings both where we live and throughout the world. But we only book a visit with a real estate agent when we’re actually looking to buy. I’m sure they’re out there, but I haven’t heard of anyone saying “while we’re visiting family in California, we may as well check out some homes for sale just in case we end up moving here!” But I know plenty of families who, once their kids are in middle school, will say “while we’re visiting family in California, we may as well check out UCLA and USC, just in case!” They go on college tours wherever they happen to be, just to get the kids some exposure. I think you can do that much closer to home if you want, but colleges are making it much easier to get to know them without being there in person.

An appreciation for the old rituals. As a high school teacher, especially when I taught seniors and had AP exams to prepare for, I really didn’t like all the extra stuff that came with senior year. Prom; senior skip day; senior prank; senior trip; awards night; graduation rehearsal, sometimes several of them. I was fine with seniors doing college visits at places who had accepted them, but the rest felt like too much celebrating a win before they had crossed the finish line. But talking to students in the classes of ‘21 and ‘22, I keep hearing how much they miss those things. I’ve come to a better understanding of how important those transition rituals are, and I hope students do, too. School communities can reflect on which of the rituals and traditions they missed the most and why. The next two years will be a good time to appreciate and accentuate the really meaningful ones. It’s also a great time to let go of the ones that aren’t as special.

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post, here are three easy things you can do:

1. Share it on your social media feeds so your friends and colleagues can see it too.

2. Check out these related Apply with Sanity posts: Taking time to reflect, Things for high school seniors to consider before committing to a college.

3. Ask a question in the comments section. Or let mw know what pandemic-related changes in your life you hope to keep.

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Opting in and out of standardized tests

There has been some big news in the past few weeks concerning college admissions testing.

The first is a single announcement: the College Board has discontinued SAT Subject Tests and the optional SAT Essay. While I was pleased (but not surprised) to hear this, the SAT Subject Tests are not really a big part of my world. Few of the students I’ve worked with in the past five years took any Subject Tests. When they did take them, it was because they wanted to apply to a specific school that required one or more of the tests, and the students took it once. There had been no multiple-year build up to the Subject Tests the way there is for the SAT (and/or ACT). The Subject Tests and Essay were essentially opt-in tests, meaning those tests were something that people only did once it was clear they had to—it wasn’t “normal” to take those tests.

The second news item is a series of announcements: many colleges are already declaring that they will remain test optional for at least another year. (I’m not surprised at this development, but expected it to come later in the spring, not this early.) With so many test-optional choices available, that means that the regular SAT and ACT are becoming opt-in tests as well. I wouldn’t advise any high school student to take either of those tests until they’ve chosen to apply to a school that requires it. Those tests had been, until last year, opt-out tests: it was “normal” to take those tests, and you needed some good reason not to. But things have shifted drastically.

This news is good for you on a personal level. Eliminating the SAT/ACT requirement, or at least reducing its outsized importance, makes your admissions tasks more manageable. You get to focus more time and energy on things that have a lasting effect and less time and energy on tests that have no value once you enter college.

It’s also good on a wider, systemic level. When it comes to inequities in college admissions, the opt-out nature of the standardized tests is a major factor. First-generation college students are less likely to take the tests before their senior year, or at all. Students in high schools that don’t make test administration part of their focus are less likely to take the tests. For them, the SAT and ACT were opt-in tests, and many didn’t or couldn’t opt in in time. With that barrier to college access reduced, those tests will be less of a factor for equal college access. Of course there are other barriers, especially during a pandemic with widespread unemployment, but making the tests essentially opt-in for everyone can help level the playing field a bit. That’s a categorical good thing for everyone.

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post, here are three easy things you can do:

1. Share it on your social media feeds so your friends and colleagues can see it too.

2. Check out these related Apply with Sanity posts: Test-optional isn’t going to last: Juniors, should you take the next SAT or ACT?; Should you submit your scores to a test-optional college?

3. Ask a question in the comments section.

Apply with Sanity doesn’t have ads or annoying pop-ups. It doesn’t share user data, sell user data, or even track personal data. It doesn’t do anything to “monetize” you. You’re nothing but a reader to me, and that means everything to me.

Photo by Zoe Herring.

Apply with Sanity is a registered trademark of Apply with Sanity, LLC. All rights reserved.

Juniors, should you take the next SAT or ACT?

There’s an ACT test coming up on February 6, and the regular registration deadline is tomorrow, January 15. There’s an SAT on March 13th, with a registration deadline February 12th. Should current juniors consider taking either of these tests?

Nope.

The main reason I'm not recommending anyone take the ACT in February or SAT in March is simply the Covid situation. With the numbers as high as they are, I just don't feel comfortable encouraging anyone to go into a group setting in the near future. Last fall there was a lot of chaos surrounding test administration, with many test sites closing at the last minute, so I don't have full confidence that registering for the spring exams will even get you into the spring exams. I would look ahead to the June or August exams instead of spring. That will still give you plenty of time to re-take if you want.

Another reason to put off testing is the number of universities that are test optional. A growing number of colleges were already test optional. And then last year a whole lot more went test optional, some for one year and some for multiple years. But the ones that only gave a one-year break are likely to do it again (at least one already has), because the pandemic is even worse right now than it was last June. By the time you are applying this fall, It may be that the majority—or even all—of the schools you’re considering won’t even be requiring test scores. So risking an unhealthy situation for an unnecessary test just doesn’t seem like a great idea.

Let’s also look at reasons why you might want to take the test soon:

You want to take the test once, early, to get it out of the way and focus on other things in the summer and fall. I love the thinking behind this. I don’t, however, think it’s all that likely to happen. In my experience, almost nobody is ever happy with their test scores. Even if you take the test and get what you think is a good score, there will still be some tempting reason to take it again and aim for a higher score. Your scores will be just under the mid-range of a school, and you want to get them up just a little bit more. Your scores will be just under the top 25% of a school, and you want to get them up just a little bit more. Your score will have a 9 in it—either a 29 composite for the ACT or a combined SAT score that ends with 90—and you want to get it up just a little bit more. That just a little bit more is going to be hard to resist, and so the “once and early” strategy often fails. But if you think you will actually do it this way, go for it…in June. Not right now.

You want to get a baseline score to help you plan for test prep and retakes. Again, this is completely rational and practical. You probably have an idea of where you want your test scores to be, so now you need to know where you are. I get that. But again, you can put off your first exam until June and still be able to execute that plan. You can also take practice tests to get a good idea of your starting point, and they are free and can be done from the safety of your own home.

You want to take the exam as often as possible for superscoring purposes. This is something I hear less often. Most the people I’ve worked with who took the exam a bunch of times thought they’d take the test once, maybe twice. Then they just ended up taking it three or more times because they kept chasing that just a little bit more. Some students, though, absolutely do decide early on that they’ll take the exam four or five time to get the highest possible score. While I don’t endorse this approach, I do understand it. And again, if this is your plan you can take the SAT five times between June and December. Give it time.

But there’s another way to think about testing, an approach I do endorse: don’t take them at all. Not this spring, not this summer, not this fall. Decide right now that you’re only going to apply to test-optional or test-blind schools. There are lots of reasons to dislike the tests, and Fairtest is good at explaining them. Here’s the thing that I always come back to, though: every other part of your college application has value far beyond college applications. Doing well in your high school classes, being involved in your community, strengthening your writing skills, practicing interviews, taking action to pursue your interests—all these are valuable on their own. But a college-entrance exam has no value once you enter college. It’s extremely limited in usefulness. So I encourage you to skip that part. It’s not worth it.

Does that mean you’re eliminating choices based solely on their testing policy? Yes. But there are thousands of colleges and universities. You’ll only apply to maybe a dozen, and only attend one. Elimination is what the process is all about. But isn’t testing policy a pretty arbitrary reason to eliminate choices? Yes. But so are other reasons. You want to stay within 100 miles of home? Arbitrary. You want to avoid places that are hot, or avoid places that are cold? Arbitrary. You want to go to a college with a “good reputation?” Arbitrary. It’s fine to use an arbitrary reason to pass on a college. But could you be letting go of a college that would otherwise be a really great fit? Absolutely. But remember that wherever you go to college, you will also be letting go of colleges that are also a really good fit.

If you’re not ready to make that leap, I understand. There may be a college you really have your heart set on, and they require you to take the SAT or ACT. That’s fine, I’m not judging you. But I still believe it’s time we all—students, parents, counselors, consultants, teachers, all of us—start thinking of the SAT and/or ACT as a special opt-in circumstance, not the default that only a certain subset of students opt out of. You can go to a really great college and have a really great career and a good life without ever taking one of those exams. Think about how nice that can be.

Be safe. Be careful.

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post, here are three easy things you can do:

1. Share it on your social media feeds so your friends and colleagues can see it too.

2. Read these related posts: Should you submit your test scores to a test-optional college? and It seriously looks like SAT/ACT testing is going away.

3. Ask a question—or share other resources—in the comments section.

Apply with Sanity doesn’t have ads or annoying pop-ups. It’s not trying to sell you anything. It doesn’t share user data, sell user data, or even track personal data. It doesn’t do anything to “monetize” you. You’re nothing but a reader to me, and that means everything to me.

Photo by Angela Elisabeth.