Some Colleges Not Requiring ACT Test Scores For Admission

Even though its been just a few years ago, I can remember the day I took my ACT test. I remember the hours of studying and preparation for the test that would play a large role into what college I could apply to and hope to get into. Its a stressful time. But now, thanks to the pandemic, many colleges and universities are not requiring a standardized test score for college admission.

KCRG reports that Iowa, Iowa State, and the University of Northern Iowa are not requiring students to submit an ACT or SAT test score for the 2021-2022 school year. Its a move that Cornell College in Mt Vernon did five years ago, a long time before a pandemic caused chaos with academic schedules. Cornell officials say they dropped the requirement because they were seeing a lot of students that had high GPAs but lower test scores.

Even though some colleges have dropped the requirement, KCRG reports that students are deciding to take the tests anyway. A local service that helps students study and prepare for the tests say they're seeing about the same number of students get ready for the tests as in other years.

ACT, the second most popular college admission test, is located in Iowa City. KCRG reports that they have had around 750,000 students take the test across the nation since they got testing sites up and running this summer. ACT officials say that even if a test score is optional, students know that if they send a score in, schools will still look at it.