Although Admissions officers may have reviewed thousands of SAT scores this year, they may have far fewer to study in the next admissions cycle.
The College Board launched a new program this Spring that gives test takers the option to report only the scores from their best sitting to colleges rather than all their scores.
Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Christoph Guttentag said he does not think that the new policy will significantly affect how Duke reviews a student's application.
"For us at Duke, it is not going to make any significant difference," he said. "If a student only wants to send us one score sitting, they can do so already."
Guttentag noted that, unlike how other schools may view test scores, Duke compiles the best score of each subsection into one super score, no matter during which sitting it was taken.
"We always say we are interested in their best individual scores no matter when they were taken," he added. "I suggest they send all of their scores."
Score Choice has had mixed reception among admissions officers, students and counselors. Selective colleges like Stanford University, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Southern California have declined to accept Score Choice and will continue to ask applicants for all scores, according to a Dec. 30 New York Times article.
Dexter Tate, a high school senior from Florida, said in a Facebook correspondence that he thinks the new program seems unnecessary.
"Most schools I've talked to only look at your best scores anyway, but I suppose it makes it more difficult if you can only pick your scores from one SAT sitting because my best scores came from different test dates," Tate said.
Some critics of the new policy argue that students from wealthier backgrounds will be able to afford taking the test multiple times as well as SAT preparation courses--giving them an unfair advantage.
"Students who have more resources, unfortunately, sometimes have more opportunities than students with fewer resources," Guttentag said. "I think it's unlikely that any significant number of students will take more tests than they have to."
According to the College Board's Web site, Score Choice is "designed to reduce student stress and improve the test day experience."
Guttentag said, however, that the new option might add another layer of anxiety to an already stressful college application process.
Tate also said he thought the policy added stress rather than take it away.
"You'd always be questioning yourself, and if you can only show your best score, it wouldn't show any improvement... It would be a whole extra hassle as opposed to just sending the whole thing," he said.
With the effect of the policy yet to be seen in an admissions class, only time will tell Score Choice's real effect on test takers.
"This will all shake itself out in about a year or year and a half," Guttentag said.
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