Score Choice Notice

ATTENTION SENIORS…
Important Information about the SAT and the College Board’s New Policy on Score Choice

The College Board has instituted a “Score Choice” policy for the SAT beginning with the 2009-10 academic year. This policy, designed to “reduce student stress,” gives students the option of determining which administration of the SAT I or which SAT II test(s) they would like to use to fulfill a college’s standardized testing requirement. This policy has quickly proven to be a controversial and confusing one across higher education, as colleges have the option of accepting or rejecting “Score Choice.” Penn, Stanford, and Yale are examples of colleges that have announced they will not accept the policy and those schools, among others, request all scores be submitted with the application regardless of the College Board policy.

Students will see the individual college’s position on “Score Choice” when they attempt to send scores from their College Board account, and we expect students to follow these application requirements, of course. Beyond the basic implementation of “Score Choice,” however, two important issues arise that all students should consider when applying and/or using this option.

1) Blair will no longer include any standardized testing as a part of our school support, as it raises the risk that the SATs could be accidentally entered as official by an institution even though the student wished to exercise “Score Choice.”

2) Given our conversations with college admission offices in the time since this program was announced, we recommend that students eschew the “Score Choice” option and send all their SATs to colleges when they apply.

We make this second recommendation for three reasons. First, it is common practice for nearly all college admission offices to use the highest scores present when they make decisions on applications, so we see no risk in sending all available scores. Second, some colleges that have rejected “Score Choice” have suggested that if they see abnormal testing and reporting patterns, they will assume the applicant is withholding parts of his or her testing record and may react accordingly. (We should note, however, that colleges have been vague about their possible actions when pressed on the issue. It is unclear how they will react, although they have been clear that they will react.) Third, we believe that using “Score Choice” will add another layer of complexity and procedure to a student’s application, thereby increasing the risk of incomplete applications for lack of a full testing profile.

More information on “Score Choice,” including a very straightforward two page FAQ section can be found on the College Board website, but it is our strong suggestion that applicants from Blair will “reduce their own stress levels” by simply sending all their official scores in a timely manner to all the colleges to which they apply.

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