Important COVID-19 updates for the college bound

Here are some important updates related to nationwide response to the COVID-19 outbreak and how it is impacting several important areas of college prep:

Advanced Placement

• For the 19-20 AP exam cycle, students will be able to take an online 45-minute free-response exam at home, which will cover only topics covered in most AP classes by early March.
• The new online test can be taken on computer, tablet, or smartphone or even by photograph of handwritten work.
• There will be two testing dates, one in May and one announced later.
• Beginning March 25th, the College Board began providing free online AP review courses. These can be accessed here.

SAT and ACT

• The May 2 SAT test has been cancelled, but the June 6 session is still scheduled to occur, subject to further updates.
• Refunds for those who registered for the March 14th and May 2nd tests are supposed to issue any day.
• The College Board is planning to add additional SAT testing dates later in the year.
• The April 4 ACT test has been rescheduled to June 13, and those who registered for April 4 are not automatically registered but instead will receive instructions on how to reschedule to June 13 or July 18, subject obviously to further updates; those who don’t wish to reschedule will receive a refund.
• See here for some exciting new options that will be coming to the ACT this fall.

College Admissions

• Colleges are all over the place on whether the traditional May 1 deadline for accepting offers and making deposits for fall admissions has been delayed.
• The National Association for College Admissions Counseling has a nifty tool that allows you to search whether a given school is open to admissions visitors (unlikely at the moment), currently hosting admissions events (predominately online), or changing the deposit deadline.
• Most colleges are doing a great job of using social media and other outreach tools to allow for virtual visits or chats with admissions counselors, students, alumni, etc. Chances are you are hearing about these directly from the schools, but check with them on what offerings may be available next month.