With graduation and prom likely canceled and classes moved online, students are facing a spring semester that looks very different from that of a few months ago.

But for many students, even more troubling than this pandemic’s effects on their present are its implications for their future. The coronavirus has led the College Board and ACT, Inc., which administer the SAT and ACT, respectively, to cancel test administrations until at least June. This has led upwards of a million students to miss test dates, with seventy percent of those missing free, in-school exams. The COVID-19 pandemic already disproportionately impacts our most vulnerable communities — the cancellation of these tests simply adds another layer of difficulty for students who may lack the finances or transportation to take a paid test outside of school hours.

The inequities compounded by this pandemic will require long-term policy solutions. But there is one simple step colleges and universities can take to reduce the burden placed upon the students who already face barriers in their quest to attain a postsecondary education. By going test-optional for the Fall 2020 admission cycle, educational institutions acknowledge that many students’ plans have been upended by this crisis, and that students should not be put at fault for a situation entirely outside of their control.

These test cancellations have affected different students and different regions in a myriad of different ways. To learn more about the range of experiences informing the test-optional movement, we spoke to Sanjana, a junior at the Gatton Academy. The Gatton Academy is a residential STEM program located at WKU. Juniors and seniors from across the state of Kentucky live in a dorm on campus and take college classes at WKU, earning a high school diploma at the time of their graduation.

The following conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Have you missed any standardized tests because of this pandemic?

I was going to take the state one [ACT] in April that we were supposed to take, and I was thinking of taking one over this summer as well. But there’s not really any sort of indication about [what is happening with] that. I was really hoping to take the one provided by the state, but that got cancelled.

Are you concerned about your ability to get a test score, or the score you want, because of this pandemic?

I’m not concerned about getting my score. I’m just concerned about the timing because having all the tests cancelled, it’s kind of cutting it short. Summer is when I want to do my college apps, get my essays done, and do tours. So I was hoping to get finished with the ACT in April or June. So not my ability to get my score, just the timing.

Do you think that, in general, standardized tests are a useful metric for college admissions?

I believe the ACT and the SAT are a good way to measure how you take tests, but it doesn’t really measure your intelligence. So if colleges are looking for, can you do well on a test under a certain amount of time, then yes, this is a good indicator, but it doesn’t really measure how well you perform in a certain subject.

Has this pandemic affected your ability to study, both for standardized tests and academics in general?

Yeah, it’s just a huge change from being in the Gatton dorm and surrounded by people living in a whole different environment. Drastically coming home and not being able to see people has been kind of a hard transition because I don’t really get to talk to a lot of people at home. I’m just always in my room doing work and it has sort of affected my motivation to do work. So I would say yes, definitely.

How do you feel about schools going test-optional? Do you think students should still be required to submit standardized test scores? Why or why not?

I think it’s good for people in low income areas or places that don’t have as many resources because it is hard to get ACT prep. It’s hard to really get those resources that higher income areas do. So I think it’s a good idea for us to do test-optional, just because of the circumstances that we are in now. I don’t think it [submitting test scores] should be necessary. Just because this has never really happened to us before. This is a whole new uncharted territory. So I think having test-optional is a good happy balance for people who don’t want to or can’t send in their scores and people that do want to send them in.

More generally, how has this impacted your feelings about the college application process?

I definitely feel a lot more anxious now that I’m not at school where I can talk to counselors in person, and I can talk to my college letter writer in person. I also got a lot of advice from seniors about college when I was at Gatton. So not having that support and not being able to talk to them about essays and certain colleges I’m thinking of applying to has been kind of stressful.

Are you hopeful that schools will go test-optional long term?

As I said before, the ACT is a good way to measure how you take tests and how you work under pressure. So if they’re going to use the ACT to determine that, I think it’d be a good idea to continue requiring tests, but if they’re looking at it as a way to show how smart you are, then it’s not a good way. So it just kind of depends on how colleges are going to see it.

What would you want to tell university admissions officers and leadership?

I would just like them to know that because of this pandemic, I lost a bunch of opportunities and experiences that I would have loved to have. I lost conferences. I lost my study abroad. I lost my KYA trip to Chicago. I lost so much stuff. So, I want them to know that, please don’t base everything off of my extracurriculars or my activities because it’s all gone. I would have loved to go have those experiences and obviously put them on my applications, but I can’t. I just want them to know that I did have things planned, but they just couldn’t happen.

Anything else?

At this point, I think we all just have to hold out and see what happens. Test-optional is good for this kind of circumstance. I’m not sure how it will work after the pandemic. So I think we all have to sit tight and see what happens.

This interview was conducted and transcribed by Sofie Farmer, a junior at the Gatton Academy. It was edited by Sadie Bograd, a junior at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School, who also wrote the introduction.

This piece is part of a series on the #TestOptionalNOW campaign. For more information, visit Student Voice’s website or sign the petition.

The opinions expressed on the Forum represent the individual students to whom they are attributed. They do not reflect the official position or opinion of the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence or the Student Voice Team. Read about our policies.

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