When it comes to getting into college, which student has the tougher situation: the student with a low high school GPA or the student who has a low SAT/ACT score?
There is no doubt that students with low or mediocre college admission test scores have a better chance of getting into more colleges and at higher-quality colleges compared to those with low or mediocre high school grades. Everyone isn't a good test taker.
The prospect of taking a standardized test can cause severe anxiety in some students. However, this may not reflect in their grades.
Most top-ranked colleges still consider students' test scores to be important, but some colleges-including some excellent colleges-do not give much or no weight to test scores.
College websites often publish admission testing policies, and you can see that colleges sometimes conduct their own research on their own students in order to determine whether SAT or ACT scores have any better predictive value than high school grades - or indeed any predictive value at all - regarding a student's chances of staying in college and graduating.
Researchers generally find that students' admission test scores do not contribute enough predictive value to require them and, therefore, to risk shutting out students who cannot take the tests easily, often low-income students in urban areas.
18 selective colleges that are Test-Optional
There are some schools that do not place such a heavy emphasis on test scores and ask students to demonstrate their academic ability in other ways instead.
These can be demonstrated through essays or a portfolio of their work.
Students may submit SAT or ACT scores (and many do) if they think the scores will help their applications at one of these highly respected "test-optional" colleges:
During the application process, these colleges allow students to choose which admission or achievement test scores to submit.
This is not true for all of these policies. The University of Rochester, for instance, adopted a test-flexibility policy in 2011 that is more flexible than others.
The University of Rochester recently announced that it would adopt a test-optional application policy beginning with the fall of 2020.
As stated in the document, this review process takes into account a variety of factors, such as academic and nonacademic factors, and acknowledges that standardized tests may not accurately reflect a student's abilities.
6 Colleges that are Test-Flexibile
Here are a few highly respected test-flexible colleges:
Are there any “high-school-grades-optional” or “high-school-grades-flexible” colleges?
As far as we know, none of these schools exist.
Grades from high school are always taken into account by colleges.
When there is a reason why high school grades are lower than the student is capable of earning –such as a difficult family situation or a personal health problem – this explanation should be included in a required application essay (if the subject matters) or in an optional supplement.
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