<p>If a class had 801 students, and #200 had a 750 score, and #201 had a 740 score, I could see reporting the 75th percentile as 745, without feeling that it was a lie.</p>
<p>Public companies get a lot of scrutiny of their unaudited financials, and can absolutely face liability for intentional or negligent misstatements. Most significant public companies are followed by a regular coterie of analysts and interested investors, and if anyone senses that the accounting has problems two things start happening immediately: (1) an increase in short sales of the company's stock (essentially betting against the company), and (2) a firestorm of public complaint (usually stoked by the short sellers AFTER they have put their shorts in place). Sometimes, but not often, the order is reversed.</p>
<p>Private companies, too, face liability for non-innocent misstatements of their unaudited financials by parties (lenders, business partners, investors) who reasonably relied on them.</p>
<p>It sounds like in the past Middlebury has not been as transparent as one would hope in the way they report their figures. But really, who cares? If USNWR wants to audit them, it should (it should fact-check everyone's numbers independently), but I don't think anyone is being meaningfully defrauded if Middlebury reports only the SATs actually submitted to them vs. the SATs of all students who took the test.</p>