Covid-19’s Impact on Next Year’s College Admissions

Pandemic has changed and continues to change our world. College admissions is no exception to this. Abbreviated at-home (and open book, open note!), AP exams, cancelled SAT and ACT sittings, and campuses closed not just to prospective students but to faculty, staff, and students themselves… all of this will certainly affect college admissions next year, but should it also flood students (and families) with panic? 

The answer is no. (Well, aside from plain procrastination, no panic is ever necessary in the college search... but I digress…)

Instead, students should proactively give themselves the power of knowledge. They should check the admissions webpages of schools on their college lists. How do the schools plan to handle admissions next year? Are they among the several hundred already test optional? Or have they decided to suspend the requirement for test scores next year?  Boston University, Tufts, Middlebury, Colgate, Case Western Reserve, all state universities in Oregon, and the University of California system… along with dozens of other schools have decided to make this and other changes for the next admissions season. 

Three articles contextualize these changes well: 

• Scott Jaschik’s “Coronavirus Drives Colleges to Test Optional.” Inside Higher Ed. 30 March 2020. 
  
• Jeff Selingo's "Coronavirus - What's Next for Admissions and Higher Ed." 28 March 2020. 
  
• Jon Boeckenstedt’s “All the Answers to Your Test Optional Questions.” 8 April 2020. ​(Prepare for some brutal honesty from the director of admissions at Oregon State).