Global Tamilian: Pandemic realities leave no level playing field for college aspirants

Eight months of living in the pandemic era, still the list of unanswered questions on so many facets of life lingers large before the world. Be it the treatment, prevention or the recovery plans by the scientific community, the social impact of staying home or the economic impact of shutting down businesses, all seem to be taking one step at a time approach. The fond hope is of course that the coming months would be different for good. Sailing through this reality and transitioning into the new norm, many players may be left with the feeling as to how unfair the pandemic reality was towards them. In this list figures the life of students, especially the ones who await to take their leap into college, who may be left to feel heavy in their nostalgic travels.

At a time when discussions on holding the entrance exams for professional courses loom large back in India, it is nice to explore the inexplicable sense of fear and anxiety that is alive in the minds of parents who have their children prepare for college in the US. Undoubtedly for the Indian American community to which education is a high priority subject, the current happenings are just little uncomfortable yet is not worth a complaint considering the fact that our choice is obviously being different for now.

Yes, of course, the pandemic year is just not the same. When schools closed in March earlier, much of the academic work and college prep for the then senior year was completed. Barring the memorable celebrations, the admission process was not much disturbed.

“My eldest son knew exactly the college he was going to be in by March when the pandemic caught our lives. Now the case is totally different for my second one who is entering the 12th grade this September as he is yet to write his SAT exam and is clueless on the scores he needs for applying to colleges,” said a concerned parent.

“My son is a senior and is expected to apply to colleges by November. He was to take his SAT exams prior, that never happened and we applied for the August exam and his centre has cancelled the test. Now we are applying for September testing, not sure if that will happen,” said another. “My daughter has got a very good GPA and is dreaming of a good college. She wanted to retake the SAT to improve her score but that now seems to be difficult as the test centre cancelled the August test,” fretted a New Jersey Indian American mom. Yet another said: “My son was always scared of the SAT exam and now he can comfortably take cover under the situation.”

Across the US, the SAT is a standard test that is used as a monitor for admissions into colleges. Usually, students complete taking this exam twice or thrice to improve scores before August of their senior year so that they are ready for applying to colleges by the year-end. Since the exams have not happened, the current batch of seniors will be disadvantaged.

Many colleges have said that they will not insist on the SAT score in the admissions, yet the college board has not scrapped it altogether. The college board has left the discretion to the testing centres to cancel if the safety and the CDC norms cannot be met. This means there will be some who are able to submit their SAT scores as the centre that they registered was able to hold the exam.

Even in centres where the test is administered, the children will have to wear the face mask and maintain social distancing of six feet while taking the test. The number of registrations per centre is reduced to follow social distancing norms. Wearing the mask for three-hour tests can be stressful on their child, feel many who are not keen on signing for the SAT exams. There are parents who opted for online schooling to avoid exposure and for them to send the children for SAT exams is like too risky to sign-up.

In the US, a four-year cumulative GPA, an important indicator for college admissions, is also becoming challenging to score for many teachers and kids in an online environment. The maximum advantage of learning cannot be had. There may be better performing kids who attend in-person classrooms but may fail to shine in an online environment.

There are also many dreamers who planned for higher admissions from India whose dreams have also got crushed. “My nephew from India who got admission to his dream college in California could not come in the last minute. He prepared so much for getting into this college and he was so excited when he got an admission, paid all the hefty fees and was hoping to start in September but that got deferred. He is left to stay home with no job or education to engage in the meantime,” said a long-time resident of California.

Many students like these do not know what the future of college admissions holds for them. How long will this pandemic be around changing the rules of our normal life remains unanswered. Yes, for all the priority, for now, seems to be staying safe, but sure these will haunt the children if they are forced to compromise on pursuing their dreams. One of the sure things that Indian Americans have enjoyed is the comfort of pursuing the heartfelt dream and ending up successful and sure there seems to be a disturbance in this order. Definitely, this will leave an invisible scar in the minds of the new generations. But the hope is that this will leave no pain to endure.