Common App Ends Score Choice Confusion

Students have always been able to take the SAT as many times as they'd like in an effort to improve their scores. Until this year, the College Board sent scores from every single sitting to the colleges where students chose to apply. Then came Score Choice: Students can still take the test over and over, but now they can select which scores colleges will see. Sounds great, right?

Trouble is, some colleges aren't buying Score Choice. They still want to see the results for every attempt a student made at the SAT. Others are on board with Score Choice, and are perfectly happy with an applicant sending only his/her best scores. So when a student is filling out the Common Application and comes to the section on testing, what is she to do if some of the colleges she's applying to want all the scores, but others don't?

The answer: Nothing. Until a better solution can be reached, the Common Application has decided to allow students to skip the section where standardized testing is reported. Inside Higher Ed reported the following on October 1:

The Common Application has had to adopt a temporary policy to deal with the dispute over "score choice," the controversial rules change by the College Board that allows applicants to college to decide which of their SAT scores they want to report. The change allows students who take the test repeatedly to hide that fact, while the old policy would have required all scores to be reported. Some colleges are going along with the change, but others are insisting that all SAT scores be reported. While colleges'evaluate students based on official scores received from testing agencies, some application forms ask students to self-report, so admissions offices can have that information while awaiting the official scores. Parts of the Common Application allow applicants to send different information to different colleges, but the test score question is part of the completely shared application. The Common Application's board has adopted a policy for this year that allows applicants to skip the testing question -- without penalty -- so they can submit some scores to colleges that permit score choice and all scores to those that do not. Rob Killion, executive director of the Common Application, said that its board plans to spend time over the next year developing a long term solution.