As seniors decide what colleges to attend, many obstacles start rising. A big one is their SAT and ACT scores, which has several factors to consider, as their importance has shifted in recent years.
According to an article in US News and World Report, 80% of U.S. four-year institutions will not require SAT and ACT scores or will not consider them if submitted for the fall 2025 admissions.
The SAT and ACT are less in demand, which has changed a student’s perspective, as new factors are prioritized over the standardized exam’s scores. For instance, an article in Our World Your Voice, emphasizes that when colleges start to look at a student’s transcript they look at things like extracurricular activities, community service, and GPA. This is similar to CSU’s admission process as they mainly look at academic GPAs, and extracurricular and leadership involvement, as claimed by California State University. UCs also work similarly but have an addition of personal insight questions to get to know the student better instead of exam scores. The more the SATs and ACTs become test-optional, the less impactful they have become as both CSU’s and UCs don’t require them.
In addition, , an article in The Hill claims that private universities in the Common App have about 4% of them requiring the SAT and or ACT exams this fall, down from 55 percent in pre-pandemic 2019. The pandemic that occurred in 2020 impacted university’s thoughts about requiring exam scores, which has consequently led to fewer students deciding to take the exam. However, Wood from U.S News and World Report points out that admission experts have encouraged students to take the exams to tackle test anxiety and even possibly have good scores. Some private and out-of-state universities still require these exams to be taken to be considered, but most have decided to have essays to be required instead of the exam as claimed by EdSource.
SAT? ACT? What’s the difference?
The SAT is also scored from 400 to 1600 and contains two sections: Reading and Writing, and Math. From these two sections, there are 154 questions in total given in the 2 hours and 14 minutes hour time limit without the essay, but 3 hours and 4 minutes with the essay.
The SAT has also developed its digital version to make it more effective for students to get a more adequate score. This would then overcome the obstacle of a student needing a closer location to take the SAT. Fee waivers have also been given regularly to high schools made up of low-income students who would like to take the SAT. They get up to three tries for free of taking the SAT exam through the fee waivers.
The ACT, on the other hand, is made up of four multiple-choice sections: English, Mathematics, Science, and Reading. A total of 215 questions in 2 hours and 55 minutes without the essay, but 3 hours and 36 minutes with the essay.
According to Private School Review, the average scores that private university’s students score is about 26 out of 36. Similar to the SAT, they also give fee waivers for students who are low-income.
The major differences between the tests are the amount of questions given to a student and the exam style that each has, which has led for millions of students to choose taking the SAT over the ACT. According to the College Board, nearly two million students prefer to take the SAT, as it takes less time, has shorter passages, has digital options, and has more practice from the PSAT, so a student is more likely to know what to expect on the actual SAT exam.
For these reasons, the majority of high schoolers have decided to take the SAT rather than the ACT since most universities don’t require one over another.
Why you should take the SAT and/or ACT
If you’re applying to an elite school, you might have to. According to Crimson Education, prestigious universities like MIT, Brown, and Georgetown have continued to disqualify many students automatically if they haven’t taken the SAT or ACT exams as they still require them to be submitted in their application for admission.
There are also a lot of support and practice programs like PSAT and NMSQT to help a student better prepare for both exams and score higher scores.
Students with low GPAs can also take the SAT and ACT exams to potentially get good scores that can offset a lower GPA.
Additionally, even though some universities don’t require the SAT and ACT it can still seem good for one to submit a score as it can play a decisive role if your competitors didn’t submit any score at all. Also, the SAT and ACT were made for students to test their skills at a college level, so getting good scores demonstrates the skills of a high school student to be already meeting a college-level student that is to be expected by many universities.
Why you might not want to take the SAT and/or ACT
Elite schools require scores from 1400-1600, which means that students would have to place in the top 10% of the nation to have a strong chance of admission. Factors like personal insight questions, high school transcripts, and extracurricular activities have also been weighing more for the majority of universities as many are concluding that a standardized score doesn’t determine one’s true potential.
Also, there are limited days and locations to take either exam and they fill up quickly, meaning either traveling farther or not taking it, defeating the purpose of the fee waiver.
The amount of stress and anxiety students have to undergo ultimately isn’t worth taking it, as about more than 80% of U.S. four-year institutions do not require the exam scores.
Some test prep courses are expensive and the ACT is also not very predictable each year, making it hard to prepare for the questions given.
So What Should You Do?
The decision of whether to take either of the tests is up to the individual. If you do well, it can strengthen your application, so that’s a consideration, but for many schools, they aren’t required to gain admission.
There are free practice tests and topics to focus on like Khan Academy, Kaplan, and College Board.
In the end, taking the SAT and or the ACT is an additional step for you to take advantage of just like an AP course. The worst-case scenario would be not including your SAT scores and continuing to add your list of extracurricular activities maintaining a GPA that will get you into the school of your choice.
