COllege Admissions News and ACT / SAT Strategy

Over the past 8 years, as the SAT has undergone two massive updates, the ACT has generally remained static in the turning world of college admissions. Any changes to its format have been comparatively minor, making it relatively straightforward to prepare for. But, as of July 15th, 2024, the ACT has announced some fairly extensive changes that will be rolled out in 2025-26. In this article, we will summarize those changes and consider how they might impact a student’s decision to take the ACT vs. the SAT.

Earlier this spring, we at MyGuru declared that test optional college admission policies were coming to an end for high school students applying to top American universities. As part of the upcoming 2024-25 application cycle beginning this fall, most of the Ivy League and a notable number of elite universities across the United States are once again requiring an ACT or SAT score. Now, Stanford has quietly announced (in a classic Friday news dump) that it too will be reinstating a standardized testing requirement for undergraduate applicants, but beginning in 2025, making this the final test optional application cycle for the Cardinal. This particular decision is important for two reasons:

1. It pushes the timeframe for application policy changes back a year
2. It puts Stanford in direct opposition to its California public university rivals

With Harvard and Caltech joining the ranks of selective colleges and universities requiring a standardized test once again as part of the 2024-25 application cycle, MyGuru is more than comfortable asserting that all high schoolers planning to attend college should once again plan to take either the ACT or SAT. While many applicants will see this as a negative (who wants to take a test on a weekend, right!?), this return to standardized testing requirements has been supported by each of the institutions reinstating the exams with data illustrating that test optional policies have actually harmed the at-risk and lower income students that they purportedly were intended to help.

For ambitious students looking to get into a good college and launch a successful career, SAT prep is a time-honored tradition. For years, increasing numbers of students have been turning to online SAT prep to get themselves ready for test day. In the age of coronavirus, online SAT prep has gone from a convenience to a necessity. But with more and more test prep resources coming online every day, how do you know you’re getting the best online SAT prep for you? Your personal preferences, learning style, financial situation, and more can influence whether online SAT tutoring or online SAT courses are a better fit.

By the time you’re a junior or senior in high school, you’ve probably already heard a lot about the importance of the SAT. This is the standardized test most colleges and universities accept for admissions purposes. Since the SAT has so much influence over your higher education and, therefore, your career, many students work with a tutor for their SAT prep. This is an excellent idea, and something every future SAT-taker would benefit from. But of course, when it comes to selecting a tutor, you’ll have to consider not only the quality of the tutoring, but also the SAT tutoring cost. If you’ve never gone down this road before, there’s a huge range of SAT tutoring rates. In this article we explore what you should expect to pay for your SAT prep cost, and what the rate says about the quality of the education.

College Board Cancels all Spring SAT Exams

Having already cancelled its May 2 SAT test date, CollegeBoard announced this past week that it will be canceling its previously scheduled June 6 test date worldwide as well. This means that there will not be another SAT exam offered until August 29 at the very earliest, so nearly six months will have passed between possible SAT administrations for juniors planning to take the exam this year. In making this announcement, CollegeBoard also indicated that it is preparing an online version of the exam in the fall should in-person administrations still be prohibited by the pandemic. This follows in the footsteps of announcements from both GMAC and ETS that, at least temporarily, each organization would be offering and at-home online GMAT and an at-home online GRE exam respecctively.