<p>I don't know that it's concentrated in the northeast. My daughter knows of at least one girl at her school here in Texas that has been affected. Perhaps the problem is more widespread than they have let on?</p>
<p>More information from the NYT.
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/09/education/09sat.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/09/education/09sat.html</a> </p>
<p>The headline is Officials Say Scoring Errors For SAT Were Understated. Its especially outrageous that the College Board knew that something was out of whack in December! I'd say the ramifications have been vastly understated as well.</p>
<p>
[quote]
College counselors and college admissions officers said yesterday that they were surprised by the announcement and its timing, which came months after the College Board began investigating and close to the end of the admissions process. . . </p>
<p>Bruce Poch, vice president and dean of admissions at Pomona College in California, questioned how many students nationally whose early decision applications were rejected might have been accepted had their scores been reported correctly. He also questioned how many students had altered the lists of colleges they were applying to because their scores had been reported as lower than they really were. "I hardly think a refund of the test fee will make up for that pain," Mr. Poch said, "and in this litigation-driven society, I wonder how long it will take for a class-action suit to emerge." . . . </p>
<p>"Scores are absurdly important," said Ned Johnson, a consultant in the Washington area who works with students applying to college. He added, "One hundred points could easily make or break a kid." Mr. Johnson said "the initial reaction was utter stupefaction, disbelief, anger." . . .</p>
<p>The College Board said Tuesday that it received the first indication that there might be problems after two students asked that it re-examine their scores in late December.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>My daughter took the test in October. Believe me when I say we are NOT holding our breath that her scores were amongst the affected...but just for HER...if they were. YES she did alter her list of schools based on her (late received) SAT scores. If she gained as little as 20 points she would have been eligible for consideration of some special programs at one school which was very honest in saying they use the SAT as their cutoff for these programs. If she gained 100 points she would have been accepted with distinction at her TOP two choices and maybe would have been eligible for merit aid at both. Like I said...I doubt she was affected but if this is the scenerio for her, it is likely the scenerio for others as well. I can tell you that dealing with the college board just on the delayed score report was almost impossible...no one to field phone calls, no questions answered, nada. Even when we filed a formal complaint and they said they launched an "investigation" into where DD's tests were, we heard nothing from them. You would think that when the scores were sent, they would at least write us to say something about the problem being solved. Everytime I send them money, I cringe.</p>
<p>My son also took the Oct. SATs. He was accepted to his ED school, (GW) but not to the very competitive program within GW (Poli Communications -- he's in Arts & Sciences instead). But who knows? Would an extra 100 points have made the difference? Maybe. His counselors, tutors & I always thought his CR score should, and could, have been more representative of his skills.</p>
<p>But like everyone else, I'm not holding out much hope that his is an affected score. I would assume that by now (Thurs. morning) we'd have heard something. That doesn't mean I didn't check his CB Score Report page first thing this morning -- just in case!</p>
<p>Boston Globe:</p>
<p>Numbers of potential applicants who were given erroneously low SAT scores (estimated). They asked for scores to be sent; they did not necessarily end up applying.</p>
<p>UMass-Amherst: 220
Boston College: 200
Tufts: 75
Brandeis: 60
Suffolk"50
Harvard: 50 (Crimson says 4 dozens)
MIT: 28 (firm)
Simmons: 11 (firm)</p>
<p>Michigan has about 100, but that's score-senders. Not known yet how many are apps.</p>
<p>UPDATE : Short report about SAT snafu on CNN.</p>
<p>Robert Smithville of Brentwood, California and his parents were interviewed. He applied to Boston University and was rejected based on his scores which are NOW 80 POINTS higher which NOW put him on the upper % range of accepted students. </p>
<p>Mom wants to know what took Collegeboard so long to notify everyone. She said she is furious.</p>
<p>James Montoya, a representative for College Board said that colleges have been notified.
NY Institute of Technology, Jaquelyn Nealon was interviewed as 'frustrated" college counselor who wants to know what took collegeboard so long to notify.
Robert will reapply to Boston University and says he is Very disappointed and said this is unneeded stress. (understatement of all time) </p>
<p>Here is the most newsworthy part of that blurb. </p>
<p>Collegeboard can't pinpoint the exact problem and they don't know why it occured???? </p>
<p>Stay ...............................tuned ....................</p>
<p>My best guess is that they knew it was a problem but didn't know how many students were affected or which ones. If they'd released a statement in December, that there was a problem but they didn't know who or by how much....what would that have done? Colleges couldn't suspend all admissions decisions until they know which os their applicants have new scores. Plus I think it would falsely raise the hopes of nearly every one of the 500,000 of kids who took the test and would love a higher score (better admit chances! better scholarship chances!)</p>
<p>I have no love for the College Board over this issue, but I also don't think there was much purpose in them releasing information until they had nailed down whose scores needed changing. The question is when did they know THAT information? </p>
<p>anyway, the Chronicle reports: "Students from every region of the country were affected by the problem, though the bulk of the students with incorrect scores live in New York, New Jersey, and California."</p>
<p>Someone in that article pointed out that the real problem isn't admissions decisions that have been made by colleges (which can be changed) but that some students may have changed their application list based on their scores, and crossed off matches and never applied. You can't redo that decision. How unfortunate.</p>
<p>What a mess. Can you imagine the barrage of people there will now be demanding hand-scoring of their tests - and not just from the October one either!</p>
<p>I think an appropriate sanction would be for all colleges to go SAT optional or ACT preferred for one admissions cycle.</p>
<p>Had problems with this post.... </p>
<p>See corrected post below. thanks</p>
<p>What about NMSF and NMF????? This could also have affected some national merit semi-finalists who had to take the SAT last October and ended up with lower scores. If that happened and some of those semiF didn't make it to Final because of SAT scores, will those kids get reconsidered, too? </p>
<p>Since this was a test taken at such a critical time, there will be negative results.</p>
<p>here's a link to CNN.com article</p>
<p>Well...I will say that the College Board was "less than concerned" when they could not locate my kid's October test at all. They didn't know where it was...just that it had not been processed. They didn't know whether it had been scored or not. They simply would not or could not respond to any of our questions regarding the delay in her score report. The date online just kept getting pushed later and later. Finally, the November administation info was online, and they just stopped posting about the October delays. Like I said...as if a miracle...the scores appeared. But it did not instill confidence in me re: the College Board. Dealing with them was nothing short of impossible.</p>
<p>Scoring Errors Exceed Estimate
One Harvard applicants SAT score mistakenly lowered by 320 points</p>
<p>Thousands of SAT scores from the October 2005 test, including the scores of several Harvard applicants, were mistakenly lowered by up to 400 points out of a possible 2400, the College Board said yesterday. This represents a much greater disparity than previously publicized.</p>
<p>For one student the difference was 320 points, Harvard Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid William R. Fitzsimmons wrote in an e-mail. A second student had a difference of 130 points; for a third, the difference was 120 points. For the rest, the differences were smaller. </p>
<p>If we haven't heard from College Board by now, does that mean that my son was not affected? My son missed scholarship level at one of his top choice schools by 20 points. He didn't fill out the application for it because those are firm numbers and was due at the end of January. While 20 points doesn't seem like much at all, it would matter to him - and us because the scholarship was worth thousands of dollars.</p>
<p>Chances are he wasn't. Most people affected were from NY, NJ and CA. I've read that Collegeboard emailed all affected students already.</p>
<p>One's never sure about the accuracy of these public statements. We accept them on faith. There could be other states as bad off proportionately as NY, NJ, CA.</p>
<p>Just confirmed that my D qualifies for a higher merit scholarship at TCNJ with her newly revised SAT score. This is good news and I hope other merit scholarships will follow.<br>
D has spent hours on the phone contacting schools she is applying to in order to make sure the college board has actually forwarded the corrected scores. This is just unnecessary stress at an already stressfilled time of year.</p>
<p>And another article about it:</p>
<p>Apparently, excess moisture causing answer sheets to expand, as well as scanners not picking up light marks are being blamed. Pearson, out of Austin, Texas, was awarded the contract for scoring the tests back in 2003, but only took this function over from Collegeboard last year.</p>