SAT and ACT scores will remain optional for UNC System applicants through Fall 2024
Students looking to attend UNC-Chapel Hill, N.C. State University or any other UNC System school won’t have to submit SAT or ACT scores with their applications through Fall 2024.
The UNC System Board of Governors voted Thursday to extend a waiver for SAT/ACT test score requirements for admission. That makes UNC schools, for now, test-optional.
The waiver has been in place since the start of the pandemic, when standardized test availability was limited.
The reasoning behind keeping the waiver now is to stay competitive with peer institutions that have either adopted this type of policy or dropped standardized testing requirements. The waiver also acknowledges high school students whose classroom experiences have been negatively affected by the pandemic.
Some board apprehension
The extension of this waiver passed with apprehension from some board members.
As a parent, board member Joel Ford said, he wanted to make sure that if students score well on the ACT or SAT that they could still have that be considered in their application.
Students can submit standardized test scores when they apply to a UNC System college, but they do not have to.
Applicants still need to meet the minimum weighted GPA of 2.5 to be considered.
The SAT and Act waiver is separate from the board’s extension of a pilot program to change its minimum admission requirements across campuses to give schools more flexibility in who they admit.
UNC Association of Student Governments President Ray Palma said students are really excited about the extension of the waiver. He said his peers have appreciated not being required to submit standardized test scores over the past two years given the learning environment.
GPA is a good measure because it reflects how students work in their high school classroom, which is similar to the process of taking college courses, Palma said.
But Ford and board member Thom Goolsby said they worried about admitting students who aren’t ready for college just to get “butts in seats.”
Goolsby voted against the waiver during the COVID-19 pandemic, and he questions the extension now.
Kimberly Van Noort, the UNC System’s senior vice president for academic affairs and chief academic officer, explained that the waiver is not just about difficulty accessing the test, but about the learning disruptions and conditions students have had to work through over the past two years. She noted that about two-thirds of four-year institutions have a waiver through at least fall 2023.
But Goolsby said the waiver will allow unprepared students to come to college and be set up for failure. That sounds like “exactly the wrong-headed thing to be doing,” he said.
The proposal passed with Goolsby casting the lone vote against the waiver.
Similar to peer colleges
Committee chair Temple Sloan said the waiver puts the UNC System “in line with our peer groups and not at a competitive disadvantage with applicants.”
There’s been a national conversation about dropping standardized test scores from the admissions process, as universities across the nation have done.
But getting rid of the ACT and SAT is “a bridge too far, way too far to even have that discussion,” Sloan said.
The UNC System provides more information about the standardized test waiver on its website.
This story was originally published April 7, 2022 at 2:54 PM with the headline "SAT and ACT scores will remain optional for UNC System applicants through Fall 2024."
