Ohio State students have recorded an average above a 28 every year since 2012. Credit: Zachary Rilley | Photo Editor
Standardized tests have been an important part of education for generations, but after the COVID-19 pandemic and record-low ACT scores nationally, Ohio State’s test-optional policy challenges the necessity of the exam.
After taking the ACT seven times before applying to Ohio State, Jessie Kasper felt confident with the 34 she scored on her ACT.
Just under 3 percent of students in the U.S. achieve a score as high as 34 on the standardized test, according to the national ACT profile report. For Kasper, it was the result of years of work.
Now a fourth-year in marketing and screenwriting, Kasper first took the ACT in seventh grade. Even though her efforts paid off by achieving a high score, Kasper said her memories of the exam are not positive.
“It’s just too much stress for nothing,” she said. “You wake up, and you’re nervous early in the morning, and since you normally take it at your own school, you see a bunch of your friends, but you aren’t even allowed to talk at all.”
Kasper said she doesn’t feel the test is a measure of intelligence — it’s more about knowing how to take the exam.
“For my last two times taking it, I had a tutor,” Kasper said. “We didn’t go over the content of the test or anything, we just went over strategies to take the test, like how to go faster or what order to do stuff in.”
Applying to college is an anxious time in a high school senior’s life. After years of study, numerous essays, extracurriculars, recommendation letters and application fees, students can finally breathe a sigh of relief and refocus on school work once their Common App is submitted.
That is, until acceptance letters start going out.
For a public university, Ohio State has frequently boasted its students achieve higher-than-average ACT scores. With a 36 being the highest possible score on the test, Ohio State’s incoming classes have recorded an average above 28 since 2012.
In the university’s recorded enrollment data, the average ACT score of incoming freshmen was steadily on the rise, with the peak average score at 29.5 in the fall 2019.
However, Ohio State’s scores dropped. A Lantern analysis of enrollment data showed this constant growth in average ACT scores ended with the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the enrollment data, the average ACT for incoming freshmen in 2020 dropped to 28.8, the lowest average since 2014. Since then, students have had the option to withhold their ACT score when applying to Ohio State.
By making this decision, Ohio State is part of a trend in which universities across the U.S. declared ACT tests as optional to gain admission. University spokesperson Chris Booker said in an email the decision made sense because the pandemic restricted test availability to students. Even though COVID-19 is less of a barrier, Booker said the ACT is expected to remain optional.
Despite this policy, the university still tracks average ACT scores — shown by the university’s enrollment data from 2022 — leaving students, like Kasper, to question just how optional they are.
“I would probably have ended up taking [the ACT] and sending it to the colleges even if it was optional because they’ll probably still look at it,” Kasper said. “They might look more at the person who had the score turned in. So, I feel like it would just be nice to get rid of it entirely and not even have it optional.”
Bethany Schweitzer, an independent educational consultant and founder of CollegeReadyUS, said it’s important to make these scores optional to lessen the pressure when applying to colleges or universities.
“I’ve loved seeing the way this test-optional landscape has opened up so many options, especially for those students who really challenged themselves in high school,” Schweitzer said. “I had students, back when test scores mattered, not be able to get in because they couldn’t get their ACT higher than a certain point.”
Rose Babington, ACT’s senior director for state partnerships, said in an email she has seen a drop in national ACT scores, but not all of it can be blamed on the pandemic.
“The score declines show the effect of school-related closures and learning disruptions during the pandemic,” Babington said. “However, we also see a decline over the longer term, suggesting additional effects from systemic failures that predate COVID-19 but were exacerbated by it.”
Every year, over 70,000 students apply to Ohio State’s main campus. Booker said university admissions takes a holistic approach to enrollment, relying on student achievement, extracurriculars and GPA as well as standardized test scores.
National data from the ACT shows how many students achieve each composite score on the test. The score range Ohio State looks for students to achieve is outlined in yellow. Credit: Becca Duncan | Lantern TV Producer
As a public land-grant university, Ohio State has to accept all applicants from the state of Ohio. The university currently has an acceptance rate of 57 percent and early acceptance of 64.5 percent, according to US News & World Report.
What the admissions reports don’t show is how the university only enrolls around 8,000 first-year students to the Columbus campus each fall. This means only 1-of-10 students who apply to Ohio State end up attending the main campus.
The university manages to maintain its high acceptance rate by admitting students to regional campuses, which do not have as competitive acceptance requirements. In 2021, the average regional campus ACT score was just under 22.
For main campus admission, the university’s enrollment reports show the middle 50 percent of incoming freshmen from the 2022 school year had ACT scores in the 27-32 range. The national ACT data showed only 15 percent of all students in the country who took the test achieved a score in this range.
Since the pandemic, average scores at Ohio State have started to increase. After the initial drop to 28.8 at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, they fell further to 28.6 in 2021; however, this turned around in 2022 when Ohio State’s average increased to 28.9.
Ohio State’s enrollment data showing the change in the average score of incoming freshmen compared to the national average score students achieve on the ACT. Credit: Becca Duncan | Lantern TV Producer
At the same time, average scores across the U.S. are going down. The national average has been on a steady decline since it peaked at 20.8 in 2018. The national ACT average was down to 20.3 in 2021, the most recent year with recorded data.
Schweitzer said COVID-19 may have played a role in the drop in scores due to online schooling changing the way students are examined.
“I’m just wondering if kids aren’t used to taking high-stakes tests anymore,” Schweitzer said. “It’s not the knowledge that’s gone. It’s the ability to sit and take a long test in a very short period of time.”
Despite this drop, Schweitzer said the test-optional college applications have benefited the students she advises.
“For the mental health of students, I think it’s way better because it hit this point where kids were just taking the ACT over and over and over and over again, and to what end?” Schweitzer said. “I would rather them go and challenge themselves with another harder class during their junior year of high school and learn something new than to just be hitting themselves with this test that really doesn’t show anything at the end of the day.”
Test-optional policies moving forward
Booker said Ohio State chose to become test-optional in 2020 as a direct response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The pandemic had an immediate impact on the availability of testing for students, with many locations canceling tests,” Booker said. “With the decision to become test-optional, we anticipated that students would not be able to submit test scores and retest as they were able to pre-pandemic.”
Babington said the pandemic impacted some students’ abilities to take the ACT, and this likely caused more schools to remove the requirement.
“Test-optional admissions policies existed prior to the pandemic, but we know from ACT market research that COVID-19 prompted an abrupt and significant expansion,” Babington said. “Institutions that adopted the policies during this time did so less deliberately, out of immediate concerns over testing accessibility, because many testing centers around the country closed temporarily.”
Booker said while Ohio State’s ACT average of incoming freshmen was lower in 2020 and 2021, this was also seen nationally, and the university anticipates these scores will continue to rise.
“As testing administration has continued to increase, we do anticipate that our average test scores will continue to reflect the strong academic preparation of an Ohio State student,” Booker said.
Despite the test-optional policies, Babington said the ACT is still an important part of the college search for high school students.
“The ACT test helps students find the college that is right for them, begin exploring potential majors and careers, and pay for school by qualifying for certain types of financial aid,” Babington said. “Many colleges that don’t currently mandate test scores for admission still require scores for awarding merit-based scholarships.”
Booker said the university is still looking to keep the test-optional policy available to students in the future.
Although the ACT may never return as an application requirement at Ohio State, Booker said the university is dedicated to identifying well-rounded students with a holistic process.
“Ohio State seeks students whose applications demonstrate that they are prepared for the academic rigor of the Ohio State classroom, are ready to contribute as a university citizen, and are committed to the notion that there is strength in a diversity of people and ideas,” Booker said.
According to Ohio State’s Undergraduate Admissions website, the university “recommends” submission of ACT or SAT scores if they’re available, because “we believe that standardized test scores provide useful information and predictive value about a student’s potential for success at Ohio State.”
Kasper believes the best answer moving forward is for schools to stop accepting the ACT altogether.
“I would say they should just get rid of it, honestly, because I feel like what matters more is how you did in your classes and your extracurricular things because the ACT is literally just how fast you can take a test,” Kasper said.
