When it comes to the SAT, sometimes the sixth time’s the charm.
With this in mind, the College Board is implementing Score Choice, a system through which students can select individual sittings of the test to send to schools rather than all scores being automatically reported. On its Web site, the College Board explains that this will “reduce student stress and improve the test-day experience.”
James Conroy, chairman of post-high school counseling at New Trier High School in Winnetka, a few miles north of Evanston, believes most undergraduate admissions departments will not see this as a particularly drastic change.
“Colleges realize on any given day people can score higher or lower depending on a number of factors,” Conroy said. “We talked to a number of highly selective schools like Northwestern and their reaction was, ‘Big deal.'” He said students overestimated the amount of weight admissions departments place on the number of times students take the test.
“They’re making them out to be some sort of bogeyman that says, ‘four SATs ago you got a 580,'” Conroy said. “Any kid that’s applying to Northwestern has taken the SAT far more than once.”
Lavinia Pavlish, a Music junior, said the new system might be unfair, in that it gives students who can afford to take the test more times an advantage.
“I think they should see every time you’ve taken it,” Pavlish said. “The people who created it had good intentions, but the score correlates directly with family income, which is ridiculous.”
Conroy said students from lower income families have options to give them a level playing field.
“They have fee waivers for the other kids,” Conroy said, referring to a policy in which students who receive federally subsidized lunches are allowed to take the college entrance exam for free.
NU’s Department of Admissions declined to provide an opinion on the new Score Choice option.
Melissa Chang, a junior at Naperville North High School, thought Score Choice would alleviate some of the stresses of applying to college. Chang will soon take her first crack at the SAT.
“I just signed up for the SAT in March,” Chang said. “I should probably start studying, but it takes off a lot of pressure.”
