Well maybe K-6. Most students of middle school age or older should be able to stay home unsupervised.
While I agree that Purdue seems more transparent in their communications, I am disappointed that the Purdue Senate voted to not go test-optional next year. Given the uncertainty of SAT/ACT testing availability for the class of 2021, this decision shows a lack of empathy for prospective students. Moreso in light of IU’s decision to go test-optional.
That’s interesting. I haven’t heard of any other schools yet who have voted and said no to test optional. Lots out there that don’t seem to have decided yet. I get it. It’s going to be hard to choose students without scores, especially at larger universities and for engineering programs. It’s a little risky for Purdue to make that decision. They will have fewer applicants.
Perhaps they will change their decision if SAT/ACT tests don’t go this summer.
I’m picturing the difficulty college admissions offices are going to have next year, particularly at large schools that are used to using score cutoffs.
"I took 3 AP’s junior year but no I don’t have any AP scores. My SAT scores aren’t back yet because I couldn’t get a slot before January. My junior year spring semester grades are all pass/fail. I expected to be named captain of my soccer team but the season was canceled. My portfolio for the advanced studio art class I took didn’t turn out the way I wanted because I didn’t have access to most of the materials I needed. The teacher I was going to ask for my English recommendation retired early because she was afraid she’d be infected this fall. She’s not answering email.
But really, you should admit me."
I was on a zoom meeting with a T30 admissions director who explained that he believed for the class of 2021 admissions folks would be looking at students in the context of other students from the same HS who currently attend or recently attended that University. i.e. did the applicant take the same rigor of classes and perform similarly to current student who are performing well that the university?
I wonder if a significant number of kids are going to defer (take a gap tear) this fall, which would put a squeeze on the class of 2021.
@xyz123a, I think that’s what schools do in the best of times. They look at students in context.
It will be interesting to see whether this year nudges additional schools into the test-optional bucket long-term. Many have already announced that they’ll be going TO next year and others seem to be considering it. Will they go right back to requiring testing or will they find they can craft a class well without standardized test scores? Will the schools with experience with TO admissions find the upcoming admission season a bit easier than some of their peers because they already know what works for their school? Or will yield numbers for the already TO schools be off because top students with weak scores will have more choices of places to apply TO?
Cornell just went test optional. That’s a big one and I believe the first Ivy.
https://cornellsun.com/2020/04/22/cornell-waives-2020-2021-applicants-act-sat-requirements-due-to-coronavirus/
On an NU webinar this morning they said unlikely they will go TO
I hope not.
TO is bad news for those happy with their scores (like our DS24 who had ACT 35 in 7th grade).
It is disappointing to see Caltech and MIT dropping subject SATs starting next year (though understandable in the current context). I hope they never go fully test optional.
The middle 50% ACT scores are, to us, the most useful measuring stick for school’s academic rigor.
Their institutional research will presumably be tracking the fall 2021 test optional admits and their progression through college, so that colleges can compare with-test and without-test admits to see if the tests add value in predicting eventual student achievement or other outcomes that colleges want to find or predict in admissions.
Caltech, dropped the requirement before all hell broke loose, and MIT probably did it because Caltech did. That said, virtually all the kids at those schools have 800s across the board, so it probably wasn’t helpful in sorting kids out.
That doesn’t help if your kid goes to a tiny school, like mine does, and will graduate in a class of less than 50 students. I wonder how AO’s would handle that.
They probably realized that anyone not presenting 800 math level 2 and 800 (or close) science subject tests was already a dubious candidate for admission based on other application characteristics, so the subject tests did not add much value to the admission readers.
They partially measure incoming students; this does not necessarily mean that that the college will require a high level of rigor if they get high test score students (particularly if the college strongly favors test scores over high school record in admission, resulting in high scoring students who may be less than fully committed to school work). Also, when the test scores are near their ceilings, they may not distinguish between students of handling Caltech rigor versus some other highly selective college rigor.
@Chekov I haven’t followed the Caltech and MIT changes closely. Are they prohibiting students from submitting subject scores? Or are they just dropping their requirement? In other words, is it optional or strictly prohibited? My D21 is in the same situation as your son. She already has perfect or nearly perfect subject test and SAT scores. It would be a bummer for her to not be able to submit. She may not apply to Caltech or MIT, but was at least entertaining the idea.
@sue22, I don’t think I explained myself well. The Admissions Director explained that although admissions folks are familiar with high schools and typically look at students in the context of their HS, next year they will specifically using contact tracking software to look up students who attend the university and comparing applicants from the same high school to those students. This is a departure from past practice at this particular university.
I would expect that at top schools, admissions officer will lean towards the already known, accepting more students from feeder schools and schools they communicate with who can assess their applicants and have sent kids there before.
Yes, CalTech, MIT, and Mudd are now subject test blind, meaning if you submit them they won’t look at them.
I would think it could be helpful at quickly eliminating those that don’t have 800.
My concern is that the current situation will accelerate American college admissions’ shift towards even more subjective and opaque “holistic” process than it is already notorious for.
But this is an entirely separate topic that would derail this thread from speculating about more immediate problems at hand:)
Both Caltech and MIT have stated that they wouldn’t consider SAT Subject test scores and would be ignored if submitted.