For the first time in decades the college admissions process is being reinvented.

Admissions officers have traditionally relied on standardized test scores grades and extracurricular activities to decide who will be accepted into their school.

But the pandemic has forced significant changes affecting all of those metrics.

According to FairTest, an organization that aims to reduce the role of standardized testing in college admissions, More than 1600 colleges are test-optional or test-blind for fall 2022 admissions.

Locally that includes UTC and Lee University.

Tyner High School Senior, Jaylan Sims says he hopes it's his extracurriculars and several internships that will make him a standout college applicant.

"I think myself and everyone else are more than a test score, I think we're more than A's and B's," said Sims.

The 18-year-old has interned for WDEF and former mayoral candidate Monty Bruell. He also was one of the students leading the calls for improvements to Tyner High School's facilities.

Sims is currently in the middle of his college application process. He submitted his FAFSA student aid application the day after it opened, on October 2nd.

Now, he is finalizing his early admission applications which are due early November.

The process means he's submitting 17 applications to 17 different schools including Syracuse University and Tulane University. And he is not planning on submitting any standardized test scores.

"I'm relying heavily on GPA in extracurriculars, because all colleges, they do something called this holistic review where they don't just focus on one aspect of your application. They focus on your application as if it was this huge pie," said Sims.

"There is certainly a move for colleges and universities away from the standardized testing," said Shane Griffith, the Assistant VP for Enrollment at Lee University.

Griffith says the test scores are highly recommended but not required.

"For us, the standardized exam is used far more for placement than it is for an admission decision. And but it is also an important determinant in our Merit Scholarship structure," said Griffith.

Several schools do still utilize standardize testing like SATs and ACTs for merit scholarship. The move towards test-optional is one that started as access to testing declined during the pandemic.

"So when COVID began, as you know, many states moved away from testing. It wasn't possible for students who are juniors last year and seniors last year to take those tests. That according to our data that has opened up quite a bit for this year," said Griffith.

Lee University says they are working on an internal mechanism to help assess the skills of incoming students. Griffith says this would allow the school to get the quantitative and qualitative skills data that is traditionally produced from standardized exams.

"I think as we move forward, this is not something that colleges and universities will go backward, I think that we will slowly start to see more and more colleges and universities moving away from those nationally standardized exams," said Griffith.

ACT data shows that for the last 5 years there has been a steady decline in students nationally who have participated in standardized testing.

In 2016, more than 2 million students took an ACT. That number declined to just over 1 million 670 thousand in 2020.

ACT data for 2021 is not yet available.

Griffith notes that some other changes to the college application process that Lee University is noticing includes more students resuming in-person visits. However, Lee University is still offering virtual school tours.

The university also notes that they have seen high school seniors this year applying to more schools than in years past.

"In part, I think, because they can't go make those visits, they can't determine this school seems like a really good fit," said Griffith.