Wealthy students are 13x more likely to ace the SAT. The test turns 100 this year

The SAT marks its 100th anniversary amid a major shift toward test-optional college admissions: roughly 86% of colleges are now test-optional, following an acceleration during the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 2 million students, or about 47% of graduating high-school students, took the SAT in 2025, while evidence remains contested over whether scores predict college success or primarily reflect income-related disparities. The fully digital SAT was shortened in 2024 to 2 hours 15 minutes from three hours.

Analysis

This is not a monetizable catalyst for GETY. The company’s connection is editorial-image attribution rather than evidence of incremental licensing volume, pricing power, or a change in its enterprise-content demand trajectory. Treat any algorithmic association between the story and GETY as noise; the relevant drivers remain paid creative subscriptions, AI-content substitution risk, debt-service capacity, and renewal rates.

The more investable second-order issue is the long-run migration of admissions from standardized testing toward broader application review, which increases demand for counseling, application-management software, and tutoring—but the article provides no new policy action or adoption data that changes estimates for a listed issuer. Digital testing can reinforce centralized data and proctoring economics for assessment vendors, yet its financial impact depends on procurement contracts and institutional mandates rather than student test volume alone. There is no near-term price catalyst, and the neutral framing offers no basis for a directional position.

Key Decisions for Investors

• No trade in GETY: do not treat this article as a revenue catalyst. Reassess only if management discloses measurable education-sector licensing exposure, material new content partnerships, or a change in enterprise renewal trends.
• Maintain an alert, not a position, for publicly traded education-services or assessment vendors if major university systems reinstate test requirements over the next admissions cycle; the required confirmation is a disclosed mandate plus evidence of higher paid testing or prep utilization.
• For GETY holders, continue to anchor risk management to core operating metrics rather than editorial mentions: subscription-revenue growth, adjusted EBITDA/interest coverage, free-cash-flow conversion, and AI-related pricing or churn commentary at the next earnings release.