Below you will find my response. Note that the student lives in North Carolina, USA. Schools included in the University of North Carolina (UNC) system include North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Yes, but it’s not clear exactly how much differently. I think they would all be prepared to disregard scores if the public schools had not managed to get their ACT’s in before the schools closed. Since they did, here is the latest from the UNC Board of Governors:
Schools in the UNC system are permitted to consider students with weighted GPA’s of 2.5 or better and with SAT scores of 1010 or better or ACT scores of 19 or better. Schools are permitted to disregard the score minimums, but a score must still be submitted in order for the application to be complete.
How will this play out? My prediction is that schools who have more viable applicants than spaces (most of the ones in the UNC system) will continue to consider test scores. Keep in mind that without spring sports, after school jobs, clubs, awards, and other extracurriculars to look at, schools might be using test scores to differentiate among students. Schools that tend to have a hard time filling their freshmen classes will take the opportunity to disregard scores. Schools that struggle to admit students in under-represented minorities may disregard scores for those groups. However, if your demographic is well represented at the average college, I think you will still need decent test scores to be admitted.
What represents a “decent” test score during a time when students have limited opportunities to retest is anyone’s guess. You need to compare well to others in your demographic, but I’m not sure what test averages will look like come September.
Now, having said all of that, a number of private schools and some public schools in other states have said that they will not ask for test scores this year. I don’t think we’ll know the full list of schools until they all update their admissions sites this summer heading into the fall application season. It’s also possible that the UNC Board of Governors will come out with a new ruling, but keep in mind that this most recent ruling with more relaxed requirements did not pass unanimously.
So the upshot of all this is that we just don’t know. This is going to be an interesting year to apply to colleges. There are some interesting factors in play, including whether or not schools will continue to get as many international applicants. I wish I could tell you more.
