Score reporting and Enrollment Management

Parents Forum
1

<p>My son is finishing up a number of his applications and would like to send off his scores. Will the schools know what order that score requests were made to the CollegeBoard? Is it another piece of statistical information that is provided to schools for thier enrollment management systems?</p>

<p>Thus the questions . . . I do not want to negatively impact his chances at any school because he is undecided on which school he would most like to attend.</p>

<p>Further, is the answer different for the ACTs? It seems like the information that they gather is more in the students control, though that is just my perception.</p>

2

<p>I don't know, but why not list in alphabetical order to be safe?</p>

3

<p>I was going to do that but he may want to add a school or 2 thus disrupting the plan.</p>

<p>FYI, he is trying to get his scores in to a rolling admissions school first.</p>

4

<p>This may seem like a waste of money, but honestly, I would spend the extra $18 ($9/school I think) and include the 2 extra in alphabetical order. If he does not apply there, then that is money lost, but if he does, you have your scores in, and are not showing preference. I must say that if I never came across the cc website, I would have entered the school names in a random order, as they came to mind. It would not necessarily be the order of my S's or my choice. I am suprised that schools may read so much into the order.</p>

<p>If he does not know which schools those would be, that is another story. I would then just tack them on, but clearly the schools would know that they were thought of last. That could be a big disadvantage, but again, I don't know.</p>

5

<p>NEM,</p>

<p>Thanks, I think I will do as you suggest . . . but I will wait for others to comment.</p>

<p>BTW, I may do the CollegeBoard scores in alphabetical order and the ACT in reverse alphabetical order . . . I need to have some fun too. ;-)</p>

6

<p>That's cute. I wish I knew of a better way. I am sure the pros out there know how to go about this. I guess that is also why ppl pay big bucks to package kids. My S has not had that advantage.</p>

7

<p>I don't know if I'm missing something, but how would the colleges even know what other schools score reports were sent to? If you look at the Guidebook</a> for electronic score delivery<a href=".pdf">i</a>*, there's a lot of info that's sent to colleges, but I don't see anything about what other schools scores have been sent to</p>

8

<p>I know people speculated about this, but do we know that the college board gives the colleges this info - about what other schools reports are sent to? If so, then why would colleges need to ask on their application what other colleges kids are applying to?
I can't help but think it's the rare college that would ask the C B for this information. And don't most people just naturally list the colleges alphabetically?</p>

9

<p>Tanman, that just talks about the actual score delivery. It doesn't mention the additional database services that colleges can purchase from the College Board.</p>

<p>I don't think that colleges automatically receive this information from the CB, but I do think it is something that they can purchase for a fee if they so desire. The CB makes a big deal about ability to identify and track college competition in its marketing materials for these databases (see <a href="http://www.collegeboard.com/prod_downloads/highered/ra/epsFactSheet.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.collegeboard.com/prod_downloads/highered/ra/epsFactSheet.pdf&lt;/a> for an example) and I suspect that information is generated by the score ordering information. </p>

<p>Now, whether that means that a college is going to track every single student to determine where other scores were sent -- I don't know. The Atlantic Monthly article did say that one of the datapoints available from the CB was information about the order reports were ordered in, so it is likely that some colleges use this. I suspect, however, that most schools don't go through the effort on an individual level, but rather on a broader level (what other colleges are kids who are sending their scores to us also sending scores to?)</p>

10

<p>I think my innate paranoia led me to send D's scores out in alphabetical order after her SAT had come in. Only problem now is, those aren't the same schools she's applying to. LOL. .</p>

11

<p>I think we all have to be careful about trying too hard to game every aspect of admissions. There's really no need to drive ourselves and our kids crazy over every little detail. After all, plenty of kids do this all on their own and manage to get into college just fine. :)</p>

12

<p>Here is what I did:</p>

<ul>
<li><p>I sent 2 ACT scores off to schools that are more ACT oriented. When I input the name of the schools they took them in the order I put them in (I did these in order of interest to my son).</p></li>
<li><p>I sent his SAT scores to 11 schools. As I entered the names they were placed onto the list in alphabetical order.</p></li>
</ul>

<p>It will turn out how it will turn out . . . I am done worrying too much about it. If a school eliminates him because their enrollment management system thinks he may commit elsewhere then so be it . . . their loss.</p>

<p>Overall I think my son has the right perspective, he says don't worry he will get in to many of the schools that he applies to . . . it is me and his mother that worry from time to time.</p>