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Last week, many top colleges and universities were celebrating their successes in admissions during the pandemic.
The Washington Post noted that Harvard University saw applications rise by 42 percent, while the University of Virginia was up 15 percent. The
Post credited the fact that many of these colleges were for the first time test optional this year, meaning students didn t need to submit SAT or ACT scores. The headline: Applications Surge After Big-Name Colleges Halt SAT and ACT Testing Rules.
In the West, the headline in the
Los Angeles Times was UC’s Record-Smashing Applications Put Long-Held Diversity Goals Within Reach. The story detailed the University of California s systemwide increase of 16 percent in applications. But it noted the Black applicants increased by 48 percent at both Berkeley and UCLA. Latinx applicants increased by 33 percent at UCLA and 36 percent at Berkeley. The University of California is test blind this yea
College Board
The College Board s announcement last week that it is killing the SAT Subject Tests and the SAT Essay was both rumored for some time and a surprise.
Many had speculated that the board would be forced by the pandemic to make major changes. In the fall, it turned away hundreds of thousands of students who registered for the SAT (the main SAT and subject tests) because of test-site closures. And the vast majority of colleges are now test optional or test blind, at least for this year, meaning they will not even look at an SAT or ACT score when deciding whether to admit a student. The changes announced were clearly designed to preserve the main SAT and the Advanced Placement program.