Cortland, N.Y. (NCC News) — The SUNY System has announced that from here on out, that submitting ACT and SAT test scores will no longer be required for high school students that are applying to system schools.
Previously, the requirement that applicants submit their SAT and ACT test scores had been temporarily suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the system has decided to permanently get rid of the requirement.
Leigh Petryssyn, Director of College Success at On Point for College, said that schools dropping testing requirements would allow schools to get a more holistic view of incoming students and applicants.
“I think standardized testing too has been under scrutiny for a while as to really be a rubric of like okay, just because you got a 1500 on your SATs, does that make you a better student, opposed to somebody who got like a 1080,” said Petryssyn. “But that student that got a 1080 is a community activist, is involved in every single thing in school, it’s not one defining factor.”
Students at SUNY Cortland were generally in agreement with that message. Students at the school reported that test anxiety, poor test taking skills, and financial limitations are just some reasons that they feel that SAT and ACT test scores were not representative of a student’s capabilities.
According to an Inside Higher Ed report from 2021, more than 75 percent of colleges and universities do not require applicants to submit ACT and SAT test scores.