Greater Latrobe senior Autumn Blozowich took the SAT 3 times earlier than and through her junior yr, but when she utilized to Pitt, Kent State and Penn State, she didn’t submit her scores as soon as.
“I wasn’t really happy with my scores,” she stated of the standardized entrance examination. “If you don’t submit them, (colleges) then defer their decision to the personal essay that you wrote, and I was a lot prouder of that than I was the scores.”
The technique labored, incomes her acceptance to all three colleges.
Dozens of Western Pennsylvania colleges and universities — together with Duquesne, Point Park, Saint Vincent and PennWest — have maintained test-optional insurance policies for the previous six years, permitting college students to resolve whether or not their SAT scores might be thought of in the admission course of.
But the tide is starting to show.
Higher education coverage researcher Andrew Gillen believes a reversal of this development is on the horizon as colleges acknowledge that scores, mixed with grades, are the strongest predictor of pupil success.
Carnegie Mellon, for instance, would require scores for aggressive packages corresponding to pc science beginning this fall, signaling a shift again to standardized metrics.
First administered experimentally in 1926, the SAT was modeled after World War I Army IQ exams, in response to the Education Writers Association. Today, the College Board examination prices $68, although price waivers can be found for college students who’re unhoused, in foster care or qualify for federal vitamin packages.
For many years, the take a look at was a staple of the admissions course of alongside GPAs and essays. However, the pandemic compelled a sudden pivot.
“When covid hit, there was a real concern about ‘Can you even give these tests the way they’ve been given historically?’ which is gathering a whole bunch of people in a room,” stated Gillen, a analysis fellow on the Cato Institute. “You can’t do that if you’re trying to social distance.”
While critics had questioned the take a look at’s capability to equally assess college students from underrepresented communities since no less than 2010, these debates by no means led to widespread change till 2020.
That yr, the College Board was compelled to pause testing, and greater than 1 million college students needed to cancel their take a look at registrations. Colleges nationwide relinquished SAT requirements to accommodate them.
Researchers ultimately found that the shift to test-optional insurance policies didn’t have a major impression on pupil populations.
“Largely, what they found was that it didn’t make much of a difference for most students,” Gillen stated. “You did see a couple campuses that would increase underrepresented minority enrollment. You saw other campuses that would rely more on high school (grades), but it didn’t lead to this huge shift in who was getting admitted.”
Gillen believes that returning to the take a look at will doubtless have the same, restricted impact.
“That leads me to believe that if you go back to requiring this test, you’re basically going to get the inverse of that, which is maybe some changes around the margin. But it’s not going to be this huge shift.”
SAT nonetheless holds worth, experts say
Gillen believes the SAT has proved to be a dependable predictor of efficiency — sometimes serving to colleges establish profitable college students whose grades didn’t replicate their intelligence.
However, the other state of affairs additionally happens, says Michele Wisnesck, vp of selling and enrollment administration at Seton Hill University in Greensburg.
That chance is why the college has maintained its test-optional coverage.
“There’s a lot of anxiety surrounding these tests,” Wisnesck stated. “For those who don’t feel that (their SAT score) offers an accurate representation of their academic abilities, I think that the test-optional route is a great one for them to consider so that they can still, with confidence, submit their application to universities.”
Wisnesck additionally suspects that SAT scores can assist colleges sift by means of an inflow of functions — significantly for these bigger than Seton Hill, which educates almost 1,900 college students.
While Wisnesck acknowledges that “standardized tests provide very useful information,” Seton Hill prefers a holistic strategy that weighs grades, course rigor, management and neighborhood engagement.
“I would never say (an SAT score) was the most important thing,” Wisnesck stated. “It was one of many things that we looked at.”
“That approach reflects our mission as a Catholic university to get to know the students as individuals and evaluate their potential — not just as learners, but as people who want to make a meaningful contribution to society,” she stated.
The coverage is proving well-liked; about 70% of Seton Hill’s 2026-27 candidates have opted to not submit scores. In the six years since dropping the requirement, the college has seen regular will increase in functions, retention and commencement charges.
“We’re continuing to attract those motivated students who thrive here,” Wisnesck stated. “I think covid helped us, and a lot of our neighboring institutions, embrace the test-optional policy.”
Penn State additionally has maintained a test-optional coverage heading into 2026-27. Matt Melvin, the college’s vp for enrollment administration, stated “the body of a student’s work is more predictive of their success in college than what the score of a single exam can show.”
“We don’t want tests to become a barrier to student populations that don’t have the ability to participate in test preparation courses or take the exam multiple times,” Melvin stated in an announcement. “We want to level the application process as much as possible.”
Laura Hamilton, a senior affiliate on the nonprofit Center for Assessment, agrees that scores shouldn’t be the only real determinant.
“Any high-stakes decision about an individual — whether that’s college admission or employment, anything like that — should be made using multiple sources of information rather than a single cut score on a test,” she stated.
Colleges owe candidates ‘as much information as possible’
Offering college students the selection to submit scores comes with its personal issues, stated Greater Latrobe senior Erin Ulewicz.
She took the take a look at 3 times regardless of making use of to test-optional colleges corresponding to Penn State and West Virginia. Committed to Saint Francis for doctor assistant research, she believes her rating bolstered her software however wasn’t the end-all in comparison with her GPA.
“You really never know what colleges are looking for specifically in your application,” she stated. “I think knowing how colleges view the SAT would help — having a test-mandatory policy and then also the understanding between you and the school you’re submitting to that the score isn’t defining everything.”
This lack of readability is why Dartmouth resumed SAT requirements two years in the past. An inside research concluded that standardized scores assist the admissions workplace establish less-advantaged candidates who turn into high-achieving college students.
Hamilton believes this analysis highlights a crucial problem: Students at test-optional colleges could unintentionally withhold scores that may enhance their possibilities of admission.
“It’s really important to give applicants as much information as possible about how their applications will be evaluated,” she stated. “I do think as an applicant, a lot of this is very mysterious, and it can be stressful if you’re trying to figure out what’s the right strategy to maximize your chances.”
High schoolers weigh in on SAT insurance policies
Many Western Pennsylvania excessive schoolers help test-optional insurance policies, believing they permit for a extra genuine self-portrayal.
Greater Latrobe senior Addison Tinsely, who goals to check aerospace engineering, says the pliability “levels the playing field financially and academically, because if you aren’t able to afford to take the test, it puts you at a position where you are apparently equal.”
The insurance policies additionally mitigate the extraordinary strain of standardized testing.
“I think it makes it less nerve-wracking,” says Penn-Trafford junior Samantha Seech, who lately took the SAT for the primary time. “And you don’t feel like you have to spend all night studying as much as you can just so you can get the score that a school would require.”
However, many college students nonetheless see worth in the examination.
Leechburg Area High School senior Avery Adkins bought an SAT preparation e-book and enrolled in a web-based research program — created 4 years in the past by district math instructor Craig Southern — to make sure she was prepared for take a look at day.
“I honestly thought (an SAT score) would be good to have on hand with me,” Adkins stated.
The program, obtainable freed from cost to the district’s college students, consists of about 460 questions from eight earlier variations of the SAT.
Students can full the observe questions at their very own tempo. Southern has recorded movies, about one to 4 minutes lengthy, explaining the answer to every query.
“What I have found over the past 20-plus years of teaching,” Southern stated, “is I’ve all the time had college students who come to me they usually’re like, ‘Mr. Southern, I’m utilizing this prep e-book, however I missed these six or seven (issues) and I don’t know why. I don’t perceive them…’
“I wanted to make something that was self-sufficient, that they could do completely independently.”
With the assistance of Southern’s on-line course, Adkins carried out effectively on the SAT. Her robust rating propelled her to receiving monetary support from Grove City College — which offers several scholarships to college students primarily based on their SAT rating and GPA.
But Greater Latrobe senior Sarah Levan believes there was a generational shift in how the SAT is seen.
“There’s a lot of people who are bad test takers, people who are stronger in one subject than another,” stated Levan, who goals to check civil engineering at Pitt or Penn State. “I feel these days, children know that and colleges know that, too, so they give the impression of being (at candidates) extra holistically.
“I think back in the day, our parents were like, ‘Your SAT score is a measure of how smart you are,’ whereas I feel like now kids know it’s just not that serious.”
