Some colleges opting out of SAT score choice policy that becomes effective next year

Applying to College
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<p>"Until now, students who took the SAT more than once had to send all scores to admissions committees. Score Choice abolishes that, effective for high-school seniors applying next September. Announced by the College Board earlier this year with the goal of "reducing student stress," Score Choice permits students to send only their best overall score from a given test date. ...</p>

<p>There's one catch. Colleges can opt out of Score Choice and require applicants to report every SAT score. And some colleges have now decided to do so, NEWSWEEK has learned. Stanford, Cornell, Pomona, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Southern California told NEWSWEEK their applications next fall will demand all scores. Other elite schools, including Harvard and the University of Chicago, say they'll honor Score Choice; many, such as Yale and Princeton, say they've yet to decide...."
Reactions</a> to College Board's SAT Score Choice | Newsweek Education | Newsweek.com</p>

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Announced by the College Board earlier this year with the goal of "reducing student stress"...

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<p>I find it horribly ironic that College Board does this and then allows colleges to opt out of it. In my opinion, that only increases student stress because they'll have to strategize which tests to take on what day. </p>

<p>I'm so glad I'm graduating this year.</p>

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<p>Graduating this year sucks.</p>

<p>I don't see what the big deal is if they see the bad scores. Doesn't it just mean that you put more time into studying?</p>

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<p>Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this new policy for the SAT already what the ACT does?</p>

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<p>The College Board policy on score choice was a response to worries of parents and students, but those worries were unwarranted in the first place. Here's my FAQ on the issue, newly revised with the link that Northstarmom kindly shared here: </p>

<p>ONE-TIME TEST-TAKING </p>

<p>Colleges have given up trying to distinguish one-time test-takers from two-time or three-time or even four-time test-takers, because that wasn't useful information to the colleges. There are a number of reasons for that. </p>

<p>1) The colleges have utterly no way of knowing who spends all his free time practicing taking standardized tests and who takes them "cold." </p>

<p>2) The colleges are well aware that students who have actually taken the tests sometimes cancel scores, so they have little incentive to give students bonus consideration if the students submit only one test score. </p>

<p>3) The colleges are aware that students who take the admission tests at middle-school age, who are numerous, do not have their earlier test scores submitted by default. </p>

<p>SAT</a> Younger than 13 </p>

<p>Hoagies</a>' Gifted: Talent Search Programs </p>

<p>Duke</a> TIP - Interpreting SAT and ACT Scores for 7th Grade Students </p>

<p>4) Colleges are aware that the majority of students who take the SAT at all take it more than once. </p>

<p><a href="http://professionals.collegeboard.com/profdownload/Avg_Scores_of_Repeat_Test_Takers.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://professionals.collegeboard.com/profdownload/Avg_Scores_of_Repeat_Test_Takers.pdf&lt;/a> </p>

<p>5) Colleges are in the business of helping students learn, and they don't mind students taking efforts to improve their scores. They know that students prepare for tests. </p>

<p>From the New York Times: "Although coaching would no doubt continue if subject tests replaced the SAT, at least students would be focused on content as much as test-taking strategies, Mr. Murray said. There would also be pressure to improve local high school curriculums so that students were prepared, he wrote.</p>

<p>"These arguments make sense to Mr. Fitzsimmons [dean of admission at Harvard], who said, 'People are going to prepare anyway, so they might as well study chemistry or biology.' He added that 'the idea of putting more emphasis on the subject tests is of great interest' to his group." </p>

<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/19/education/19sat.html?pagewanted=print%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/19/education/19sat.html?pagewanted=print&lt;/a> </p>

<p>6) And now the College Board is back in the business of letting students choose which test scores to send into colleges, </p>

<p>Score</a> Choice - New SAT Score-Reporting Policy </p>

<p>so now there is less reason than ever to suppose that colleges care how many times you take the test, because the colleges have no way to know how many times you took the test officially. </p>

<p>Colleges treat applicants uniformly now by considering their highest scores, period. </p>

<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/349391-retake-how-many-times-take-sat-act.html#post4198038%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/349391-retake-how-many-times-take-sat-act.html#post4198038&lt;/a> </p>

<p><a href="http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/utilities/electronic_resources/viewbook/Rollo0809_GuideApplying.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/utilities/electronic_resources/viewbook/Rollo0809_GuideApplying.pdf&lt;/a> </p>

<p>From the Harvard admission office: "If you submit more than one set of scores for any of the required tests, the Admissions Committee considers only your best scores—even if your strongest SAT Subject Tests or portions of the SAT Reasoning Test were taken on different dates." </p>

<p>See also a Newsweek article about the renewed score choice policy adopted by College Board. </p>

<p>Reactions</a> to College Board's SAT Score Choice | Newsweek Education | Newsweek.com </p>

<p>Some colleges want to see all scores a student has ever obtained, period, but as one admission officer asks, if "a student submits a single best sitting of 2320," does anyone really care "how low were her other score sets?"</p>

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<p>i'm glad.</p>

<p>i got a 2310 on my first try. other people will probably get a higher score than me after many tries, but colleges ought to know the difference! it's not fair if i work and get a good score only to have someone have a score higher only because he or she took the test a lot more times...</p>

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<p>Playing devils advocate:</p>

<p>How does a school know you didn't invest thousands of dollars into test prep prior to taking the test for the first time? Should you be deemed a better candidate over the kid who couldnt afford to take test prep OR take the test multiple times? If nothing else, while somewhat relevant a predictor of college success, I think this whole score thing has gotten crazy. And then you have the act/sat conversion thing. It's really nutty. I think those that do well on standardized tests will not appreciate the more level playing field and those that suck at them will appreciate the options.</p>

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<p>As to the ACT question above, yes, the ACT has always been score choice. Before 2002, the College Board was also as to SAT IIs. Some of the elite colleges, Princeton in the lead, kept pressuring them to have the "all" send rule and College Board gave in but ACT would not (which likely has something to do with why Princeton was one of the last colleges to accept the ACT -- for years Princeton accepted the ACT only if all the other colleges the student was applying to required the ACT and would not take the SAT and that essentially meant the SAT had to be submitted to Princeton).</p>

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<p>Typical CB money making scheme; allowing applicants to choose their scores will encourage most-if not all-to take the SAT over, and over, and over again. Who cares if the top tier colleges want to opt out, its negligible considering how many college institutions there are in the U.S.</p>

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<p>Preps?</p>

<p>If an immigrant who took the test for the first time and made a 20 on the ACT and then score a 30+ in later attempts with preparation (no private tutor), don't you think that it is more impressive that they can learn what most natives have learned in their whole life in a short period of time, especially grammar and reading? I personally did not know much about grammar till I read the Prep Book. I don't think scoring a high score on the first attempt measure someone's intelligence. Maybe you have prepared for it all your life, or perhaps you were well taught?</p>

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<p>I don't see how these colleges can demand students to send in all scores. How are they going to enforce that rule?</p>

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<p>Yea, how would they know how many tests you have taken?</p>

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<p>I agree with Zenbadabing's cynical perspective - whatever top schools do, CB still makes money off of this.</p>