By Sherry Zhang
With CollegeBoard canceling three SATs and announcing online AP testing, and with schools changing semester grades to pass or fail, many juniors are worrying about their college applications and their chances of college admissions. For many juniors, the beginning of 2020 was their final chance to raise their cumulative GPA or to score a high mark on their SAT or ACT before starting their college applications. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 situation has hindered those opportunities.
Luckily, colleges around the nation have started changing their application requirements to adjust to the ongoing pandemic. For example, on March 31, the UC admissions office addressed how “UC is temporarily suspending the standardized test requirement for students applying for fall 2021 freshman admission only.” Other colleges, including CSUs, Ivy League schools, and liberal arts schools, have followed similar steps to UC, making standardized tests optional or not requiring it at all for prospective college students. Furthermore, colleges that made standardized testing optional also noted that not submitting an SAT or ACT will not impede a student’s chance of admission. Even so, for many colleges, an SAT or ACT submission is still highly recommended. Although many colleges have made standardized testing optional, it is still imperative for students to read over the updated requirements for the colleges they plan to apply to.
For students who would still like to take the SAT or ACT, CollegeBoard and ACT will continue to offer test dates over the course of 2020. CollegeBoard shares, “If it’s safe from a public health standpoint, we’ll provide weekend SAT administrations [including SAT Subject Tests] every month through the end of the calendar year, beginning in August. This includes a new administration on September 26 and the previously scheduled tests on August 29, October 3, November 7, and December 5.” Furthermore, students can receive early access to register for the August, September, or October test if they already registered for June or if they are in the class of 2021 and do not have an SAT score. Regarding the ACT test, ACT has added two national test dates in the summer: June 13 and July 18. However, if a test center is unable to open on the national test date, a make up test will be provided a week later. Hence, if the test center closes on the test date, the make up test for June 13 will be on June 20; July 18, July 25. To accommodate prospective high school students, ACT has also shared that a new testing option, which allows students to take the ACT at home, will be introduced in the late fall or early winter of 2020. Like ACT, CollegeBoard too has considered online testing if the pandemic continues to prevent students from taking the SAT.
Although the pandemic has greatly disturbed standardized testing, CollegeBoard and ACT continue to work hard to make future test dates possible for students. In the meantime, students should keep themselves updated on future changes to college application requirements and to standardized testing as well.
For more information on future SAT/ACT test dates:
For more information regarding fall 2021 admissions for CSUs and UCs: