Graduation, Financial Aid, Admissions — For This Year's College-Bound (NPR)
As high schools move to online classes
students are worried about the impact that will have on their high school transcripts.
Original Article on NPR
As high schools move to online classes — some for the remainder of the school year — and in some places, letter grades transition to a simple pass or fail, many students are worried about the impact that will have on their high school transcripts. In some places, even getting a final transcript and sending it off to colleges may be difficult, with buildings closed down and office staff working remotely. Guidance counselors are also worried that it may even be hard to confirm that students have actually graduated — since many states rely on end-of-year grades and testing to confirm that status.
Admissions tests have also been jumbled: Advanced Placement (AP) tests will be given online, without multiple choice questions. The ACT has rescheduled the April 4 test to be given in June because of COVID-19, and the College Board has cancelled the SAT test scheduled for May. For now, the SAT scheduled for June is still on the books.
Because of this, a number of schools, including Oregon State and Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, have announced they will be test-optional for the class of 2021. Experts wonder whether this might be the beginning of many more schools going test-optional.
Case Western had been weighing test-optional policies, thinking that maybe in a year or so they'd make a decision. "Up until a week ago, I would not have predicted where we would ultimately come out on this," says Rick Bischoff, who oversees enrollment there. "But understanding how much turmoil this is injecting into the process, it's just so clearly, in our view, the right thing to do."