During the COVID-19 outbreak, there are many people impacted not by the disease itself, but by preventing its spread. While the spotlight has been on high school seniors not having prom or graduation, high school juniors also are facing setbacks that could impact their lives beyond high school.

Spring break is a prime time for high school juniors to begin to look at and tour colleges. But this year, COVID-19 began shutting down regular life in Illinois and across the nation two weeks before DGS’s spring break. This of course cancelled everyone’s planned vacations, which many of my friends and I were using to visit the colleges we were interested in applying to.

Along with this, all colleges — and now high schools — have been shut down for the rest of the school year. As we sit here, uncertain as to when these times will end, it is very hard to make plans for our summer: college visits, open houses and tours included.

COVID-19 will also be changing the way we apply to colleges next year.

Because we are no longer in traditional school, we are not taking the in-school SAT. This SAT is held during school hours and is free of charge, which means that for many students this is the only standardized test score they submit to colleges with their applications. The in-school SAT has been rescheduled for next fall, but students will be taking it after a summer off instead of after almost two semesters in school.

COVID-19 has also changed AP testing. This year’s AP test will be held online and will be a shorter test length and time frame because they will only test on things taught in the beginning of the year. This should be very helpful and raise students’ scores, but the downside is that there is overall less on the test so if you score poorly on what there is there is no chance to bring it up.

There are also impacts for the ACT. The April ACT was cancelled and the fate of the next upcoming ACTs are also uncertain. Many students such as myself who have been preparing for the ACT and planning to take it more than once are unsure of when they will even be able to take it for the first time.

The moral of this story is that it’s hard to gage what schools you want to apply to without a standardized test score.

Although many colleges such as NIU and the University of Chicago have accepted applications without standardized test scores in the past, and I’m sure many colleges will make exceptions for my graduating class, they are still a part of the college application process. It is hard to compare yourself to others without these nationwide scores.

On the other hand many colleges are sending virtual tours for students to view their campuses and programs. Although these virtual tours have been around for past years, they are much more prevalent and well done this year because it is the only type of tours that can happen. This makes it easier to view many schools because it does not cost anything, which also makes it accessible to all students.