It’s application season time, so I hope you’re all doing well on those essays if you’re a rising senior like me.
Anyways, what are your predictions of how the SAT will be interpreted for this incoming class? How will a 1200, 1400, 1500 be viewed in context? I know the easy answer is to just say follow the concordance, but I don’t believe most colleges are.
I attended a college fair and spoke to a rep for Northeastern. He said their 25th percentile score will most likely be a 1410. Based off the tour I went to at Northeastern, their 25th percentile on the old format is a 2070. This means they are equating a 1410 with a 2070. At a tour of BC, they said they just do not know yet what their new SAT range will be.
I get the feeling there’s going to be a lot of shots in the dark. The schools know the official SAT Concordance is not based on statistically significant data, and I truly believe schools are going to go with their guts more than the chart.
Yeah, it’s weird this year. I got a 1440, so according to the way Northeastern is interpreting it, that’s about a 2110. It just depends on how others interpret that score
Schools should already be analyzing the scores sent from the March, May and June SAT’s (LOTS of students take advantage of the free score send). Assuming they have received a sufficient number of new SAT scores, then that 1410 should be a good #. @mclaughlinm34 when did you attend that college fair?
I have a feeling that admissions counselors will be out of their element this admission season. They’ll end up putting more weight on petty things, like how a number “feels” to them.
That is, someone with a 1390 will be looked at disproportionately less favorably than someone with a 1400, just because the second person is over the 1400 mark.
Human psychology and whimsy will play into admissions this year far more than other years, simply because officers have never, ever worked with these kinds of numbers before.
(Disclaimer: I don’t blame them. Also, I’m glad that I got to use the word “whimsy” today.)
@mclaughlinm34 that could well be as those scores were released in May. Not sure when the May scores were released but the June scores were released late July’ish. So they now have three sets of scores which should be plenty of data to make a distribution and figure out whether that 25% cut-off corresponds to the concordance or their initial estimates.
If you happen to contact them and get an update then please post what you learned! Thanks for bringing up an interesting nuance. Others have posited on another thread that colleges might see a different distribution from what the concordance tables would suggest. There should now be enough data to test that hypothesis. D3 is attending a couple more info. sessions this month so this will be one of the questions we’ll be sure to ask.
I’ll be curious if they find the scores inflated to the degree that the concordance chart indicates. My hunch, based on a sample size of 1 and some reading of scores on this site, indicates to me that they are not inflated.
If the new 25% is 1410 (which concords to the old 2000 according to https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/pdf/higher-ed-brief-sat-concordance.pdf), then they are being consistent between the old and new, and they are using the official SAT concordance. (the new 1400 more closely concords to their old 25% of 1980, but perhaps their 25% has increased since last year’s common data set).
All this to say, it sounds like NEU is using the official SAT concordance to compare… likely other schools will to. What else do they have?
@suzyQ7 Each school will have a population of new SAT scores that can be compared to the distribution of old SAT scores from previous years. If a school’s applicant pool is relatively unchanged, they can derive their own concordance pretty easily.
@bucketDad But they will also have tons of kids like my son (that is only submitting the ACT) and kids that are submitting the old SAT that they will have to stack up against each other.
One rep said during his presentation at a college night in May that they would put less emphasis on standardized testing for the 2017 incoming class. I think that will be a trend until universities get used to the new SAT.
I can actually see where there would be a 90 point discrepancy when it comes to NEU:
CDS 2015-16 is for the prior year admission cycle. Given the jump in their scores over the years it’s reasonable that 2015-16 ADMISSION cycle would show a higher 25th% over the prior year.
That 1980 is actually the sum of the test scores (R, M, W) at the 25th percentile. That’s not the same thing as the total score at the 25th. Not sure which way it would go, however (higher or lower).
NEU is famous for doing things like admitting J-frosh (scores may not count in the rankings or in conversations with admissions reps but will count for CDS).
@bucketDad I’m thinking the free student score reports for the source of data. Between the free score sends and all the stuff probably coming in about now anyway, these institutions must have a lot of data at this time. Whether they do this sort of analysis (and especially whether they share those results) will probably not be known to us during this admissions cycle.
Guessing that there will be a more subjective assessment of standardized scores this year, as @CaucAsianDad is saying. But also guessing that strong ACT/SAT scores will still be weighted heavily. How a college views the value of the standardized test won’t change just because there are a couple years of supposed uncertainty.
Don’t assume it’s just the total score that matters (just as it’s not the ACT composite, alone.)
“Each school will have a population of new SAT scores that can be compared to the distribution of…” Here, I’d change this to: “the distribution of scores they receive in their actual applicant pool.” What makes this seem so complicated, to some? At the top holistics, they will see what the patterns are. It’s not as if they are trying desperately to figure out what equates to a 2300. Or 2100. Etc.
@Mamelot I will try to find some more informat on it. @suzyQ7 It will be interesting to see how they compare the new SAT scores with submitted ACT scores. Regardless, I am done with the SAT and will focus on my essays, summer work, and extracurriculars
At this point, it would not do me good to cram for the ACT and take time away from other important parts of my application. I just hope my 1440 will not be viewed as over-inflated and therefore hold less weight