Colleges Dropping SAT Requirement?

Well, yes and no.  Some, like Virginia Wesleyan College are offering "SAT free" admissions as an option.  The goal, which should be no surprise, is to open admissions up to high achievers who simply don't test well.  There are conditions, of course.

"High school students who obtained a grade-point average of 3.5 or higher on a 4.0 scale and who took a strong college preparatory curriculum are not required to submit standardized test scores. Such students "have every characteristic of the student we'd like to have."

Virginia Wesleyan is not alone in this approach.  According to the National Center for Fair and Open Testing, about 850 colleges do not require standardized tests from all applicants.

So, while many colleges do require SAT or ACT test results for admissions, many others do not.  Whether there is any advantage in this to any particular student depends on a host of variables.  The short answer though, is that students who achieve highly in class, but less so on these types of tests may want to look into this further with their counselor.

Click here to read more about SAT and ACT testing.