City to Offer the SAT During School Day, For Free

After two years of pilot testing, the city will offer all high school juniors the chance to take the SAT at school this Wednesday, for free. That's about 70,000 juniors citywide.

Mayor Bill de Blasio and the schools chancellor, Carmen Fariña, visited students at Queens Vocational and Technical High School on Monday to wish them luck for test day this week. De Blasio told students the city wanted to remove any potential obstacles to taking the test — and make it an inevitable step for all high school students.

"We want to make it obvious and easy and clear: college is for everyone, if that's what you choose," said de Blasio.

He noted that some students may not have someone nudging them to sign up; they may have Saturday jobs preventing them from taking the SAT outside of school; and the cost, at about $50, may be a deterrent. The city is spending about $2.5 million to offer the test during school. 

Students also had access to free prep materials and practice tests through the non-profit Khan Academy.

"I would have taken the SAT no matter what, it just would have been a more difficult path," said Joshua Mercado, a junior at Queens Vocational. 

Mercado said he was grateful to be able to take the test in a familiar environment, alongside people he knows. He would be the first in his family to go to college, he said. 

His classmate, Jaemy Avalos, said that taking the SAT Wednesday will be a big deal, putting her a step closer to college.

"I'm actually going to be the first one to graduate from high school and go to college from my family," she said. "So I'm really proud. I want to make my mom proud."

According to a study by the College Board, the maker of the SAT, offering the test to all students during the school day increases college participation rates. The study found that students in Maine, which started administering the SAT to all students statewide in 2006, saw a 10 percent increase in college enrollment among "potential college-goers" — those who have some college aspirations but would not otherwise take the SAT.