If your teenager bombs on the SAT or ACT, you don’t need to despair.
As I’ve mentioned in previous posts on my college blog, students can get into hundreds of schools even if they withhold their SAT or ACT test scores. See links below to some of these posts.
Today I want to draw your attention to a SAT and ACT debate about the test-optional phenomenon that was waged on the pages of the Washington Post earlier this week. Two of my favorite people on this topic, Tony Bankston, the admissions dean at Illinois Wesleyan, and Bob Schaeffer at FairTest, duked it out.
I’d urge you to read the piece because it provides a more in-depth look at the arguments enveloping the movement to make submitting SAT and ACT test scores optional. The debate also reminded me of The New York Times article (that I happened to write) on the subject last summer — The Other Side of Test Optional.
On a personal note, I am relieved that both my kids — my daughter is a college junior and my son is a high school senior — will never have to take the SAT again. I’m donating my son’s SAT prep books to his high school. Good riddance.
Lynn O’Shaughnessy is the author of The College Solution and she also writes about a college blog for CBSMoneyWatch. Follow her on Twitter.