The Promotional Products Education Foundation (PPEF) has updated its scholarship evaluation process. Voted on by the PPEF Board of Trustees at its meeting during The PPAI Expo, PPEF has eliminated the use of ACT/SAT scores from the evaluation process for a two-year trial period and will review the change going into the 2024 award year.

The PPEF board chose to stop using ACT/SAT scores as many colleges and universities are not requiring the standardized tests for admissions. This movement started before COVID-19, but the number of schools not requiring them has skyrocketed since the pandemic as it was difficult for students to take the exams as testing centers were closed. According to Fair Test, The Center for Fair and Open Testing, the percentage of schools that do not require standardized tests rose from about 45% before the pandemic to nearly 80% of bachelor’s degree-granting colleges and universities now.

“PPEF was test score-optional in 2021 and this did not affect our average GPA scores for the recipients,” says Sara Besly, PPEF executive director. “The PPEF Board decided to join the schools in removing the standardized tests completely from the application. We will evaluate how eliminating the scores affects the number of applications and the academic qualifications of the recipients over the next two years and revisit the policy going into 2024.”

For the 2022-2023 school year, PPEF will be awarding $299,000 to 162 students. Thirty-two students will be receiving renewal payments for multi-year scholarships awarded previously and 130 new students will receive scholarships this year.

The application deadline is March 15. The recipients will be determined by early June. Merit scholarships will pay $1,250 and will be determined by GPA, essay and resume scores. Need scholarships will pay $2,250 and be determined by GPA, essay, resume and financial need scores.

Visit PPEF.us/college-scholarships for more information and the online application forms.

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Khattak is the news editor at PPAI.