Does the SAT Matter?

Emily Holleman is a Content Developer at Knewton, where she helps students with their SAT Prep.

You’ve heard the rumors. The SAT is going out of style.

More than 830 four-year colleges don’t require SAT or ACT scores at all. That number is growing, and now includes top-notch liberal arts institutions like Middlebury, Bowdoin, and Bates. College admissions officers (at these schools, and others) swear up, down, and sideways that they care more about an applicant’s grades, recommendations, essays, extracurricular activities, and pet fish Murray than they do about his or her test scores.

So, it’s not surprising that you might be starting to wonder: Does my SAT preparation even matter? Heck, do I even need to take the test?

Sadly for all those high school students eager to bypass one step of the long college process, the answer is: Yes.

Applicants should still plan on sacrificing at least one Saturday morning of their junior or senior year to the standardized testing gods. Sure, SAT scores aren’t the end all be all of college admissions—but they remain an important part of the process.

The vast majority of schools still requires an SAT or ACT score from each applicant. And among the best schools in the country, only a few are “score optional.” Nineteen of the top 25 liberal arts schools, and all of the top 25-ranked national universities (as ranked by US News & World Report), still require standardized test scores. For applicants looking at public universities, almost all the flagship campuses of the best state schools (places like UC-Berkeley, UCLA, UNC-Chapel Hill, UVA-Charlottesville, and UMich-Ann Arbor) ask applicants to submit SAT or ACT score.

Even “score optional” schools don’t let applicants off the standardized-test hook entirely. Many of these colleges require a battery of other scores (usually AP or SAT II subject tests) to make up for the absence of SAT or ACT results. Middlebury, for example, requires applicants who don’t submit the standard scores to send in the results from three SAT II subject tests.

The precise role of SAT scores in the admissions process varies from school to school. The general consensus is that test scores play an important role in the decision-making process at most institutions—but that they’re not nearly as critical as your high school transcript. Admissions officers want applicants who have taken a challenging curriculum and excelled at those courses. They’re also looking for students who have interesting extracurricular activities and stellar recommendations.

So why bother with SAT scores at all? Those involved in the admissions process claim standardized tests give them information other metrics can’t—namely, how a student measures up to candidates from other high schools. That said, SAT scores are always looked at in conjunction with the rest of a student’s application—not as a separate, free-standing indicator of academic success.

A high SAT score can serve as a sort of tie-breaker in the application process. If there are two students who have the same grades, equivalent extracurricular activities, similar backgrounds, and the same caliber of recommendations, schools will go with the candidate with the higher score. This is partially due to a genuine belief among colleges that the SAT does measure something useful. It might also have something to do with the fact that median test scores for admitted students are one measure used by US News & World Report in their famed college rankings. Whatever the motive, the bottom line is that a better SAT score can certainly give an applicant the leg up in the tough college-admissions process.

SAT scores also play a role in decisions about merit-based scholarships—even at some test-optional institutions. Decisions about awarding merit scholarships usually include an evaluation of a student’s high school grades in conjunction with his or her test-scores. Some merit scholarships just have a baseline cut-off: If a candidate has a GPA that’s above X combined with an SAT or ACT score better than Y, then he or she is automatically granted the scholarship.