Ever since the start of the coronavirus, the year has just been terrible event after terrible event. But out of the chaos, one good thing has come out of the 2020-2021 school year. The college board and colleges around the United States have officially stated that the bane of all juniors, the ACT and SATs were no longer going to be used in their application process.

This was a major sigh of relief for myself and almost every other junior out there, but the question that must be asked now is, what are colleges going to look at, and how is this going to affect acceptance into college? These are very important questions that I do not see being thrown around too often. If colleges aren’t looking at one of their major application acceptance qualifications then how will students be picked moving forward? Well as I’ve seen so far some colleges will be taking a look at the student’s CAASPP scores instead of the SAT, and others will be mostly looking at the student’s grades and overall things they accomplished during their school year, extracurriculars, community service, etc. I was able to get into contact with two students who wanted to voice their opinions on the matter, the first is Janelle Sanchez and the other wanted to remain anonymous.

The questions asked were, how do you feel about the SAT being basically canceled, do you think colleges are going to use the CAASPP instead and if so how do you feel about that, and do you think it will be harder for colleges to accept students and vice versa.

Janelle Sanchez:

“I felt like a big weight was lifted off my shoulder. I was glad that one test score wasn’t going to affect my chances of getting into a good school so much.”

“I think if they do it’s better because it shows progress but I’m still not a fan of tests in general. That one day you could be having a particularly bad day and it could ruin your score. What if you didn’t sleep? What if someone had recently passed away and you’ve been distracted and grieving?”

“I think it will be easier for some harder for others. It’s going to force colleges to look at students more in-depth rather than just their test scores.”

Anonymous:

“I am very glad, the last 2 years I’ve been scared to take the SAT and ACT because even though I am fairly decent when it comes to grades and understanding class material, the times I took the PSAT I haven’t done the best. So I am very glad”

“Oh yeah, I definitely think they are going to use the CAASPP, colleges right now kind of need a crutch to weed out some of the applicants, so if the SAT is out they are definitely going to try and use the CAASPP or any other standardized test.”

“I think it should stay about the same depending on if they adjust their requirements, but I have heard that it may be harder since the completion has now grown a little.”

As you can see, if these two students’ statements mean anything for the majority of the school’s junior population then they do feel a huge weight has been lifted, but are definitely anxious for the future of college applications.