More colleges are making the SAT optional. Should high school students still take it?

When she participates in fall meetings with parents of collegebound seniors, Clairton high school counselor Maureen Shaw has come to expect a disconnect on the subject of standardized tests.

Specifically, it’s over the option students have today not to take them.

“It’s different than when they went to school and everyone took the SAT,” she said. “It’s foreign to a lot of them.”

But might those students unwittingly be shutting doors on themselves by not taking the exam?

Indeed, three-quarters of bachelor’s degreegranting colleges and universities — more than 1,700 of them — will not require ACT or SAT scores from recent high school graduates seeking to enroll in fall of 2023, according to a survey reported in July by FairTest, a group long critical of standardized testing in college admissions.

For parents and students, the challenge may be to capitalize on the latitude they now have while making sure they do not overlook the possibility that their short list of campuses includes those that mandate the test.

“Don’t assume,” said Kellie Laurenzi, associate vice president for enrollment management at Robert Morris University, which has a test-optional policy.

“Students should look at their colleges to see if its policies are different than test optional. Some may still require it,” she said. “A blanket test optional policy may not apply to all majors.”

It’s worth checking to see if certain scholarships or honors programs require the tests, experts say. Depending on the student, and how strong a test-taker that person is, taking the exam and choosing to submit scores as part of an application could strengthen their case for admission.

“Use it if it helps you,” Ms. Shaw said of the test. “Don’t use it if it doesn’t.’”

During the last three decades, the share of colleges requiring standardized tests already had diminished, amid complaints that exams disadvantage lowincome and minority students, as well as disagreements over how well the tests actually predict campus success.

Then in 2020 the pandemic hit, creating a whole new dynamic.

That year, as instruction went remote and families struggled with health and financial effects of COVID-19, colleges suddenly had a harder time predicting who would show up to enroll, and of them, how many could take the exam, given lockdowns and canceled testing dates.

The number of schools with testoptional policies ballooned — from 1,070 just before the pandemic, to over 1,700 for the 2023 admissions cycle.