The sticker price of a college degree is higher than ever, with several private institutions nearing a total cost of $100,000 a year. But at some of those same institutions, the country’s wealthiest and most selective, the past year has also been one of pronounced growth in financial aid programs.

With race-conscious admissions now out of the picture, some observers believe it may be their best bet for diversity. 

Jessica Soble’s journey from small-town life in upstate New York to becoming an education coordinator at Marymount Manhattan College in New York City has been one of tragedy, resilience, and transformation.

Today, Soble is working to help incarcerated students, using her own experience behind prison walls to ensure others receive the necessary resources and support to transition into higher education and beyond.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, when dozens of the most prestigious universities in the nation suspended their standardized testing requirement, some become hopeful of a new era of more equitable college admissions.

Many of those same institutions have now done an about-face on their test-optional policies. Meanwhile, more than 80 percent of four-year schools will still not require testing for 2025 admissions. This splintering of admissions policies post-pandemic is reinvigorating debate around the necessity of the SAT: to test or not to test?