Free SATs offered to juiors

     On March 3, juniors will be given the opportunity to take the SATs here at school free of cost.

     Usually the SAT test costs more than $50 for a student to take, even the PSATs come at a cost of $25. Jozyln Robinson, Junior, has taken the PSATs and says, “even though I’m bad at taking tests, but I took the PSAT twice and it helped a lot.” Robinson describes herself as “somewhat prepared.”

    Junior Brooke Schmidt has a similar outlook on the SATs, “it’s a big test” she says, “I have to really study to score highly on it and get into a decent college.” Liam Hash, junior, says he was “surprised” by the announcement of free SATs. Hash then describes how he “does not feel prepared” to take the test.

     Some sophomores also have a heavy opinion on the subject. Alexus Beattie says that she is “happy because it saves students money.” Griffin Hevesy shared that outlook on the opportunity, “I was excited because my parent won’t have to pay for me to take it anymore.” This year, Hevesy took the PSATs and he says, “they gave me an idea of what to expect on the SATs when I take them next year.” 

     However, sophomore Dillion Battaglia had a different view. While he believes it was a “good opportunity”, he also says that it’s “unfair to the past juniors who have had to pay for it.” 

     Senior Paige Clark agrees with Battaglia, “it made me mad because I had to pay to take mine and if I choose to take them again, I’ll have to pay another 50 dollars.” Kyle Kresge also feels it was “unfair,” because the seniors “didn’t get offered the same opportunity.” Although, the “unfairness” isn’t the only reason some students are against the free SATs.

     Senior Ryan Blosser says, “it was something that I thought was an incredible opportunity for juniors,” however, there are some downsides to the free SATs. “As someone who’s been in the education advocacy fight for a long time, I was worried about the funding and I was worried about if Harford county schools could prioritize this as one of the things that we were doing.” Although Blosser “loved” the opportunity provided, he was “curious about the costs.”

     Not every college requires their students to take the SATs, for example some highly ranked colleges such as Bates and Bowdoin are SAT optional according to PrepScholar. “Especially if you go to HCC or another community college,” Blosser explains, “some of them require an entry test or they might just look at PARCC scores and because it’s not required for college, I don’t think we should be pushing the SATs onto every student.”

       There are many views on the SATs, but the fact remains that this was an opportunity that the Juniors were granted this year.