In response to the March, May, and now June SAT cancellations from COVID-19, some colleges have made it optional to submit an SAT/ACT score for 2020 applications. From local Texas Chrsitian University, to the University of Oregon, colleges hope to ease the tension during this pandemic. 

“Texas Christian University has announced that it is temporarily suspending the requirement of standardized tests for current high school juniors,” TCU Dean of Admission Heath Einstein said in a statement via email. “For those students, expected to enter college in fall 2021, the cancellation of SAT and ACT testing due to COVID-19 have created an additional burden, and the university hopes to relieve some of the extra pressure.”

While this may be beneficial to the 2020 applicants, junior Olivia Howard believes GPA and community involvement will now increase in importance.

“Honestly it does relieve stress overall,” she said. “But that also means it’s one less thing that colleges are going to look at. So they are going to be even more thorough when looking at GPA, as well as the extracurricular activities that you’ve been involved with throughout high school.”

Frisco ISD juniors had the opportunity to take the SAT on March 4, but those that did not score as high as they were planning might have a shorter time frame to increase their score. 

“That March score is probably the one that’s going to be submitted if students plan on submitting a score,” Howard said via text. “Although if a student did poorly, their chances of taking it again and raising their score are slim before college applications are due. But I still plan on taking the SAT whenever the chance comes around and quarantine is lifted. I personally didn’t score as high as i wanted to and some of the colleges I’m looking at applying to require a higher score.”

As this is something out of the ordinary and not something all schools are doing, college and career counselor Shawna Chamberlin advises juniors to pay close attention to the colleges they want to apply to in the fall. 

“I think it would be too early to give rising seniors any concrete answers with regards to their college admission requirements,” Chamberlin said via email. “My suggestion would be for rising seniors to take a look at their top three to five schools and visit their admissions webpage. The schools may already have this information published for the Freshman admission process.”

Similarly to online AP tests, College Board is now looking at the possibility of making the SAT available online for students. 

“Having the opportunity to take either the SAT or ACT online would benefit students a lot and take loads of stress off of College Board,” Howard said via text. “Although I doubt that they would ever make this change into letting students test online just because of how important these tests are when applying to colleges.”