<p>If colleges want to see all SAT scores, they should be asking the same for ACT scores. It sounds like these are some colleges' requests and CollegeBoard will only honor if student requests all scores. Take a look at #4 on fast facts. They are telling you that it's up to you to find out what a particular college wants to see.</p>
<p>Interesting. My D just went to take the SAT completely cold and exhausted. Based on the score choice idea it did not seem to matter at all how she did on this particular test, and it would give her some practice. I doubt that the colleges she is interested in will opt out because score choice allows them to fudge their admissions numbers as well, so unless we worry about the very top tier colleges, I think we should all relax about it.</p>
<p>toledo, Yes I just saw that this morning (fast fact #4). I agree about the ACTs, but then I also think that colleges who superscore SATs should do the same for the ACTs (most do not).</p>
<p>Queen's mom, I agree with you to a point. The public was entitled to know the rules before they sat for yesterday's exam (my junior has not taken a SAT test yet). My son did take the ACTs with a cold. I sent him figuring that I paid, its good experience, if he does not do well so what because of score choice. If I had the same attitude yesterday, not knowing about this "loophole", and my son had scored poorly because of illness, I would have been pretty upset. I agree that most schools take the best scores anyway, but if my son had really low scores (not mediocre) because he was sick while taking, then that would have been upsetting to me.</p>
<p>I find it fascinating that some schools won't accept the "score choice". In some ways I understand why a school wants to do its own superscoring, and I also agree that SAT is doing this as yet another moneymaking opportunity and in response to ACT's ability to select differnt test administrations without sending all scores. Whats next-- SAT will offer an opportunity to register early for a test administration for an additional fee?? Will they start to charge to submit an application for accomodations??? I like the fact that some colleges are reacting against SATs latest money making scheme.</p>
<p>I don't think it is right for the schools to demand all scores to be sent if the student has to pay for sending each score (like is the case with ACT now, if I remember correctly). I hope CB will have an option of sending all scores for the same price if there are schools that demand to see all the scores.</p>
<p>"If "a student submits a single best sitting of 2320," he asked, does anyone really care "how low were her other score sets?" In an admissions subculture fixated on the SAT, the unkind answer would seem to be yes."</p>
<p>I find this the most interesting comment; for those of us who have been through this process already, we were ALWAYS led to believe that the colleges only care about the highest score you achieved overall, not that they were going to look at previous attempts. Yes, there were certain schools that were only looking at single sittings, but those were few. This certainly changes the playing field for the younger kids...</p>
<p>and I never thought I would say this, but Linda Carmichael has it right....we were considering having D2 stick with only the ACT; now, I think that decision has been made for us.....ACT it is....</p>
<p>rodney, I always thought that schools liked to see all scores so that they could superscore the SAT and increase their rankings. It seemed like a win/win for the school and the student. I never understood why ACTs were not superscored by most schools, and I still don't get it. It would encourage students to submit all scores from different ACT seatings if there were superscoring (realize that a few schools do superscore the ACTs, but most do not).</p>
<p>rodney, I am still thinking about having my son sit for the SATs, but I am leaning toward the ACT only. My son performs far better in a classroom than standardized test scores would indicate. That is the reason for my interest in this thread.</p>
<p>Another motive that might be influencing the College Board is to impinge on the Princeton Review, Kaplan and other test prep. companies. Here in NYC almost all of the private school juniors are taking the SAT I test 2, 3 or 4 times. They used to pay $100-150 to take the test in a simulation offered by these companies. Often they took the simulated test a dozen times before taking the real one. Now they pay a lot less and if they score well can be done. Also, please keep the big picture in mind. Affluent students are paying $150 to $400 an hour for SAT tutoring and increase their scores by hundreds of points aver the course of a year. Needless to say, this is unfair to those who can't afford tutoring. But in my opinion the big picture, which I rarely hear discussed, is that these are achievement tests, not intelligence tests, which is the opposite of their initial design many years ago. If they were the latter, the sores would respond little to intense tutoring. The tragedy is that a test with the noble original mission of leveling the playing field has actually achieved the opposite and made millions and millions of dollars for the College Board and the hundreds of smaller companies that prep students.</p>
<p>Woah!!! Big news.</p>
<p>Onceburnt has it exactly right.</p>
<p>It's ridiculous how many times kids take these tests, and the amount of money spent on preparation. The only true indication of "aptitude" are among the small percentage of single sitting students who take the test once, un-prepped, and score exceptionally well.</p>
<p>The rest of this is just plain nonsense. I'm in favor of the colleges knowing how many times kids take the test, as well as those that were accommodated with extended time.</p>
<p>How is this big news at all? The Score-Reporting Policy that's been posted since June has always said:</p>
<p>
[quote]
Colleges will continue to set their own test requirement policies. These policies may vary from college to college. The College Board will work with colleges to provide them with best practice information and guidance on how best to formulate, clarify, and/or communicate test requirements policies, given the new SAT score report policy. Students will be encouraged to follow the different score-reporting requirements of each college to which they apply.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Here's a forum where I asked about this regarding Yale:</p>
<p>An email I received on Halloween from the Harvard Admissions office after I contacted them about this essentially told me what the article said, and a response from Columbia soon after said they would honor score choice, too.</p>
<p>Sorry, but this is not big news. Once you get past the initial shock of "NEW POLICY" you have to read every part of it. It's not CB's fault if some kids fail to notice only the third paragraph.</p>
<p>And to those kids who are going "How will they know?" don't forget that CB sends them your actual scores, not you; you might report them, but they get your score reports or whatnot. Most college's FAQs in fact say that they receive all these scores from like "a secure server" or something.</p>
<p>Read more carefully next time.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Their URL is "dot com" rather than "dot org." That means it's not non-profit.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Actually not. A lot of nonprofits register "dot com" domain names because they are more visible when people type partial addresses into browser URL lines. It is also legally possible for a genuine 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit organization to have a related business that furthers its nonprofit purposes. There is no doubt that College Board is formally a nonprofit organization (meaning that it is not answerable to shareholders to try to maximize profits, because it has no shareholders) and that the relevant governmental authorities have signed off on its nonprofit status. </p>
<p>If it's such easy money to offer an entrance-testing business, indeed why don't more people do it? In the core business of standardized college entrance examinations, there are only two players in the United States, ACT and College Board (both nonprofit organizations), and little sign that anyone else thinks this is a good business for making a lot of money.</p>
<p>"Read more carefully next time" is good advice. </p>
<p>Colleges only receive individual student scores from a secure server if those students authorize the test-giving organizations to send out those scores. There is an interesting interaction here between some colleges desiring to see all applicant scores and some applicants desiring to choose which scores to send, and I haven't seen a definitive statement about how that will work if some other colleges are happy to see only the scores that applicants choose to send. </p>
<p>But I won't worry about this, at all, because the applicant in my household is fine with sending in all his scores, and not at all worried about what colleges will think about the scoring levels he's attained on the differing occasions when he has taken those tests.</p>
<p>Allow me to repeat myself: </p>
<p>
[quote]
And to those kids who are going "How will they know?" don't forget that CB sends them your actual scores, not you
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Once Score Choice resumes, colleges can continue to “require” that students submit scores from all sittings, but I have read that College Board won’t help them enforce the policy. Apparently, after Score Choice resumes, applicants who request that score reports be sent to a non-Score Choice school will see a pop-up that reminds them that the school in question requires applicants to submit all scores. That’s it. Students will be on the honor system, so it’s likely that that some will comply, and others won’t.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Once Score Choice resumes, colleges can continue to require that students submit scores from all sittings, but I have read that College Board wont help them enforce the policy. Apparently, after Score Choice resumes, applicants who request that score reports be sent to a non-Score Choice school will see a pop-up that reminds them that the school in question requires applicants to submit all scores. Thats it. Students will be on the honor system, so its likely that that some will comply, and others wont.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>That would be very disheartening.</p>
<p>I am too lazy to check but does anyone knows if CB is a publicly traded company? I am looking to invest in recession proof companies with strong growth potential . (:
Franglish Thanks for the correction.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Onceburnt has it exactly right.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Should we really conclude that "Score Choice Does Favor Affluent?"</p>
<p>While we have discussed this ad nauseam, no real progress in truly understanding the impactof school choice is made. Considering the knee-jerk reactions expressed in this thread, there is little doubt. </p>
<p>Oh well, if you belive that score choice favors the affluent, what doyou think of a more drastic alternative: one score only for every test take in the country. The SAT would be offered ONCE a year in May following the PSAT. </p>
<p>Do you think that this would help the poor and less affluent and that the test prep companies would suffer? The answer is not at all! Actually, it would reinforce the need for preparing for the test and try to find "unrelased" or synthetic copies. Affluent student would simply flock to prep places that have the means tools --and sometimes lack of integrity-- to offer the services. Asian test takers would be able to rely on the cram schools that have delivered test prep for generations.</p>
<p>Further, Stanford asking for the disclosure of all score should not really matter in ascertaining the value of score choice. Each school is entitled to request the information it wants. For instance, Stanford or Penn could ask a portfolio of ten graded papers or different essays. The reality is that the key ingredient in an application is to answer the questions honestly ... this is the only tool a school disposes to decide if the student present a good fit. </p>
<p>And, fwiw, Stanford has shown in the past 2-3 years that they ARE very willing to accept students who do NOT have the highest SAT scores. Check the 2007 Edition of the USNews with the its latest edition and you'll see what is happening there. </p>
<p>Of course, it is so much more fun to beat the back of pots and pans and scream about the College Board money grubbing tactics! :(</p>
<p>
[quote]
That would be very disheartening.
[/quote]
Why would CB want to help enforce college policies that goes against CB's policy?</p>
<p>But yea it would be very disheartening.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I am too lazy to check but does anyone knows if CB is a publicly traded company? I am looking to invest in recession proof companies with strong growth potential . (:
Franglish Thanks for the correction.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>The College Board is a non-profit membership organization.</p>