Standardized testing is a good enough reason in itself to solidify the fact that no one could ever offer me a sum of money large enough to entice me to relive high school.

I took the ACT once and SAT twice, and they were easily the three most stressful days of my high school career. While I realize this isn't true for everyone, I also know there are many people who feel the way I do, or worse, about the testing process.

Freshman year, I met a girl who was an IB, honor student in high school, yet she was so worried about doing poorly on her admissions tests that she went to the bathroom and vomited during every single break of her SAT.

Every. Single. Break.

Please explain to me how a university gets an accurate representation of a student's academic capabilities when the individual is performing at this level of stress.

What's worse, the stress doesn't end after the test, nor do the consequences. You have the agonizing wait for your score. And, for some of us, receiving the score doesn't result in relief. Not to mention, the test is structured in a way that's more about knowing the tricks to "working the test" than truly understanding the content.

I didn't get into my first choice university due to my SAT (I found out later that my scores never made it to App. State's admissions office, but I don't think it would have mattered, honestly.) Either way, it made me believe, as I've mentioned in a previous article, that I had to prove my intelligence to everyone for a very long time. Yet, here I am four-and-a-half years later -- an involved, active, social college student about to graduate with a solid GPA.

The moral of my story? The SAT isn't an accurate representation of my or anyone else's intelligence or academic capabilities. As humans, our potential for success is much too complex to be reduced to a number. Thankfully, universities around the country are beginning to realize this and make changes to their admissions processes.

Wake Forest University, Catawba College, and Guilford College are only three of the North Carolina schools included on a national list of colleges and universities that switched to "test optional" admissions policies during the 2015 surge toward this trend. The list of esteemed schools making the switch continues to grow.

Wake Forest Undergraduate Admissions says it well, "Making test scores optional would not compromise the academic quality of our institution, but it would make our university more diverse and intellectually stimulating."

Wake Forest has been test optional since 2008, and the university reports that overall student performance has not decreased, and the school has actually seen a flux in other areas, such as diverse representation.

At this point, all that's left to say is, "Hey, NC State. Where you at?"