SAT Reporting Puts UCs at Disadvantage

Colleges & Universities A-Z University of California - Los Angeles
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<p>This thread is from the Berkeley forum but it's relevant to UCLA as well....</p>

<p>(where ever it says 'Berkeley,' replace with 'UCLA')</p>

<p><a href="http://www.virginia.edu/undergradadmission/profile.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.virginia.edu/undergradadmission/profile.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p><a href="http://www.ophs.opusd.k12.ca.us/new_admissions_tes.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.ophs.opusd.k12.ca.us/new_admissions_tes.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Note the difference in how UVA and UCs look at SAT scores. UVA (and every other school I can think of) add the highest scores from each INDIVIDUAL section together to come up with a composite SAT score for that applicant. UCs on the other hand, only take the highest ONE-SITTING score.</p>

<p>So suppose a person took the SAT three times and got:</p>

<p>M700 V700 W680 the first time
M700 V680 W700 the second time
M670 V700 W710 the third time</p>

<p>Note how the above is a very plausible scenario</p>

<p>UC Berkeley would interpret this person's score as being 2080 while UVA would interpret this person's score as being 2110 (700+700+710).</p>

<p>If you factor this disparity into US News' SAT reporting, all the UCs should have at least 20 points added to their reported SAT range. With this in mind, UVA would be far off from Berkeley in terms of SAT alone.</p>

<p>I don't understand why UC turns a blind eye to these kind of issues....it puts us at a disadvantage when we try to lure top applicants into our schools. I have no doubt that this policy came about as an attempt to "level the playing field" for under-represented minorities who most often times take the SATs only ONCE. HOWEVER, other schools don't play by these rules and hence we suffer in the rankings.....it would make a big difference if the 75th percentile for the (old) SATs were 1470 instead of 1450 for Berkeley...at least in the minds of most potential students who look at the aptitude of their peers and at USNEWS rankings when deciding whether or not to enroll at Berkeley.</p>

<p>Tell me what you guys think.....I think it's time for an aggressive policy change that will allow us to lure more top applicants and still manage to bring under-representative students into the campus.</p>

<p>And now that there are 3 sections to the SAT instead of 2, UCs are going to slip even more in the years to come....</p>

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<p>I didn't know UCLA took the highest score from any sitting. I know U$C does, can anyone comment?</p>

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<p>No, all UCs consider scores from a whole sitting and do not mix and match from seperate sittings, like USC (and most private for that matter).</p>

<p>The simplest step that could be taken by the UC would be to use single-sitting scores for admissions purposes and then report their scores mix/matched. That way, any reason why they have decided to retain the policy would not affect admissions, and then the published numbers would go up.</p>

<p>Of course, this would open up the floor for criticism, although the private schools are not really ones to talk...</p>

4

<p>I don't think it's a huge deal. I mean, it's disadvantaging everyone that applies. It lowered my score that I sent to private schools by 30 pts, but I still got in. </p>

<p>And if these applicants are only applying to UCLA/Berkeley just because the us news rankings are higher b/c of this SAT discrepency (or anything else), I don't think they should be applying in the first place.</p>

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<p>well, there are a lot of people who apply to colleges simply because they're high in the rankings.</p>

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<p>My USC SAT I score was 80 points above my UCLA SAT I score... :rolleyes:</p>

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<p>donmesw, I suggested the same thing. I said although it probably won't be as high as it could be (as some might not report a score or other things), it will be more in line with other schools and more representative.</p>

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<p>I was fortunate that my highest scores for each individual section came from my last sitting, so my SAT score was the same at every school I applied to.</p>