Should I take the SAT?

The changing landscape of college admissions

As we move towards the future, several colleges seem to be abandoning traditional methods of holistic review. As many know, a holistic review is a term referring to the idea that colleges consider everything in your application when deciding whether or not to accept you: GPA, race, SAT scores, college essays, etc. However, times are changing. In rare cases, schools such as UT Austin no longer check GPA, instead favoring class rank as a method by which to assess academic success. More common, however, are the "test blind" and "test-optional" practices. The former is a practice in which colleges completely disregard SAT and ACT scores, and the latter is one in which scores are considered only if an applicant submits them, though no penalty is given to those who don't. With this change rolling out to colleges across the country, the natural question to ask is: "is the SAT even worth taking?"

Is the SAT worth taking?

The distinction between test-blind schools and test-optional schools becomes very important here. If you intend to apply strictly to test-blind schools, you can certainly consider not taking the SAT. However, if you intend to apply to test-required or test-optional schools you should try to do well on the exam. The former variety of schools strongly encourages SAT scores for obvious reasons, but why should someone take the SAT for a test-optional school? According to the New York Post, some "test-optional" colleges had classes in which close to 90% of students submitted test scores. In other words, though a school may claim to be test-optional, submitting a good test result will undoubtedly help you get that coveted letter of acceptance.

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