Those who know me know that I enjoy working with young people. I’ve taught in public high school classrooms and presented to auditoriums full of college applicants. I’ve also announced high school track meets and coached youth soccer. Perhaps most influentially, I’ve loved being a parent to my own two teenagers. Working with young people is kind of my jam.

And yet, there’s another reason why I work as a college admissions counselor. I dig this stuff. The policy stuff. The how do colleges fill their classes and what happens when they enroll too many or too few kind of stuff. College admissions is a fascinating industry, and thus when Jon Boeckenstedt, VP of Enrollment Management at Oregon State, offers his thoughts on the enrollment challenges facing institutions this year, I listen.

Here’s a link to his extensive Twitter thread, unrolled for your reading pleasure (if you’re into this kind of stuff, that is!).

With over 57% of institutions already having implemented test-optional policies for next fall, Bob Schaeffer, Interim Executive Director at FairTest thinks it’s possible. A frequently updated Fall 2022 list can be found here. Still missing at this time – public flagships here in North Carolina as well as those in neighboring South Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee (the major public institutions in Virginia are test-optional).

Now every single Ivy League institution is not requiring an SAT or ACT result from this year’s junior class when they apply to college next year. Read Yale’s new release here.

Thanks to Bob Schaeffer at FairTest.org for the update!

Waiting on an announcement from our friends in Chapel Hill, Raleigh, and elsewhere …

If your student has plans to take AP examinations this spring, you will want to be on the lookout for announcements from their school/school system on when and how they are going to be administered. The College Board announced today a revised testing schedule that requires, imho, some heavy lifting by schools (especially testing coordinators). Understandable outrage forthcoming …

College Board 2021 AP Scheduling Announcement

and . . .

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The dominos are starting to fall. My location bias is going to show but here goes … how about you, UNC and NCSU?

Though I am not going to publish a new post every single time a school announces that they have extended their test-optional policy to future admission cycles, the announcements by both the University of Pennsylvania and Cornell University could hasten moves by other institutions. Good news!

The announcement by Penn State University (test optional through Fall 2023!) last week is evidence of the fact that state boards CAN get their proverbial acts together and make decisions quickly in the best interest of future applicants. Let’s hope large systems here in North Carolina and neighboring states do as they should and make announcements in the near future.

There is SO MUCH to digest in this article published in Sunday’s New York Times on how academic merit scholarship aid is awarded at a number of colleges and universities today. The overarching point: If attending a private or out-of-state public institution is a goal for your student yet you will need to keep expenses close to that of full cost of attendance at one of your state public colleges, curriculum and grades matter – a lot.

This notion of “academic merit scholarship” versus “coupon” or “discount” is something I cover in depth with families I work with here in North Carolina. We are fortunate to have a tremendously strong and relatively affordable state college and university system (fwiw – I think this is true for ALL states – look beyond the fancy names and you’ll find tremendous academic opportunities everywhere). Though local students are often wooed with scholarship money by public institutions in neighboring states (or private colleges anywhere), it is important to understand that it still may be more affordable to attend a North Carolina public college despite receiving scholarships that may total $100K+ over four years.

As is true with every aspect of the college admissions process, it is important to consider merit based aid offers thoughtfully.

What started as a message board rumor last night became reported news this morning – the College Board is ending its subject test programs and removing the writing section from the SAT. You’ll see tweets from many and articles published by the likes of the Washington Post throughout the morning. For a most thorough analysis of this decision and its ramifications, I strongly encourage you to read this breakdown by Adam Ingersoll of Compass Education Group.

The College Board just released its official statement this hour.

Because you may be curious, Compass provided lists last fall of schools that still require or recommend subject tests or the writing section for the 2020-21 application cycle.

My take? Simplifying the college application process is always a good thing.

Casey Near, Executive Director of Counseling at Collegewise, published a terrific article yesterday on how students who will be applying to college in 2022 should approach standardized testing. To Test or Not To Test: Junior Edition – it’s well worth the five minute read.

This comes on the heels of New York University announcing that they’ve received 100,000+ applications for the Fall 2021 term, a 20% increase over last year. Prior to this year, only UCLA had hit that mark in the U.S. Though NYU has had a “test flexible” policy for some time, they relaxed even that policy last June because of testing limitations forced by the COVID pandemic.

The publicity that comes with receiving over 100,000 applications is real – NYU itself even put out a press release celebrating the occasion. All of this is to say that Casey Near’s theory that “it’s very likely colleges will remain test optional for the class of 2022” is further supported, in my opinion, by the idea that NYU and other institutions with massive increases will be hesitant to risk receiving fewer applications next fall. We’ll see how this all plays out in the coming months.

Both Baylor University and the California State University system announced last week continued adjustments to their prior SAT/ACT test policies. Baylor will remain test-optional through 2023 and the California State system will remain test-blind (even submitted test scores will not be evaluated) through the 2022-23 academic year.

We are closely monitoring news releases from our local public and private institutions in North Carolina, Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia and are hopeful announcements will be made prior to the busy junior college visit season (even if virtual) begins this March.