A Big SAT Policy Change
Students can pick which scores a school sees…Attention, high school juniors: Starting next spring, you can determine which of your SAT scores a college gets to see. The College Board’s current policy is that if you send one score to a school, that college also sees the scores from every time you took the test. But starting in March 2009, students will be able to hide SAT-taking blemishes.
Some counselors worry that the new policy will give a boost to kids who can afford to take the $45 test multiples times and sign up for tutoring sessions. The college Board says the average score gain on the first SAT retake is 40 points and “there’s no advantage to taking the SAT more than twice, and our fee waivers let low-income students take the test (free) twice.
Admissions offices will have to figure out how to handle the new policy. The University of Southern California, for example, opposes the new option because it obscures the context in which a score was earned, and may still require applicants to submit all SAT attempts.
