The Experts on Admissions to Top Colleges - Ivy Compass

What Selective College Admissions Is Not

Posted by Erin Lewis at 10:01 am

Sometimes it’s difficult to explain to applicants exactly what the college admissions process is at Ivy League and other selective liberal arts schools in the US.  Sometimes it’s just easier to explain what it’s not.

Last week NPR ran a story on South Korea’s national college entrance exam.  Specifically, the impact that the exam’s administration has on the entire country.  Roads close, airplanes are re-routed and the work day starts an hour later.  Why?  Because so much depends upon this one test date; each student’s college plans may rest on the results of this 9 hour test.

Obvious differences aside, the selective college admissions process at Ivies and other selective schools in the US follow a more holistic approach than relying on test results to render admission decisions.  According to the National Association for College Admissions Counseling (otherwise known as “NACAC”), the most important factors in college admission include: grades in college preparatory courses, strength of curriculum, standardized test scores, overall grades, essay/writing sample, rank, recommendation (counselor), demonstrated interest, recommendation (teacher), interview and extracurricular activities.  Note that test scores are only part of the equation.

If you are applying to a selective college in the United States, there is reason to take seriously your standardized test preparation.  Here’s a good article about the SAT scores you’ll need to be considered for admission to top colleges and universities in the US; for ACT scores read this.  Applicants with average test scores have the ability to re-test and they also have control over whether to send SAT scores to certain schools using an option called Score Choice.  You can read my take on Score Choice here.

Since test scores are only one part of the application, understanding how to use the rest of your application to showcase your strengths is your best bet–whether you have scored a 2400 or not.  While admitted students tend to achieve statistically similar grades and test scores, it’s your story that will set you apart.  Use your essay and short answers to communicate your passions, commitments and character.  While your grades and test scores help to put you on the radar, it is your story that will compel the admissions office to offer you a place in next year’s class.

Categories: Uncategorized

Tags: act, nacac, sat, score choice

Another Thought On Score Choice

Posted by Erin Lewis at 12:30 pm

Yesterday’s post pointed readers to the following excerpt from Yale’s website for students who wish to use Score Choice and are applying to colleges using the Common Application:

The online Common Application allows students to create an initial Common Application and then, after it has been submitted, to replicate that version, make changes to it, and save the new copy under a different name. You are allowed to make up to ten different versions (although we hope you don’t need to do that!). To accommodate different test reporting requirements you could create one application named ‘Score Choice’, in which you list your Score Choice colleges on the ‘My Colleges’ page. Then you could create another version as needed for colleges with requirements similar to Yale’s, listing those colleges on a separate ‘My Colleges’ page. (The system allows you to list a particular college on only one application ‘version’.) There are instructions for creating more than one application version in the Common Application Instructions section called ‘Application Versions’.

I’d like to follow up with readers on why I second this particular advice.  While there are various opinions about whether Score Choice is a fair program, it’s here for now and applicants need to make a practical decision about how to report their SAT scores to colleges.  Since you have to sit for these exams, you should ultimately make the choice if you have one.  Completing different versions of your application offers you the flexibility to use Score Choice where possible.  Keep in mind that, while it offers flexibility, it also has the potential for creating confusion with college or guidance counseling offices that also submit their information online.  You should therefore be very clear to communicate your strategy with your counselor.

That being said, if you decide not to use Score Choice at all, it can work in your favor.  In fact, in most cases it makes more sense to report all scores for the SAT I (in particular).  In my experience, colleges and universities that advertise they use the highest sub-scores to render an admissions decision do exactly that.  In order for you to understand how that’s true, it’s important for you to consider how these scores are reported.

Your composite SAT I scores are reported to colleges and universities as three sub-scores: Writing, Mathematics and Critical Reading.  (The Writing section also has two sub-scores, which you can read about here.)  Your scores for each of these sub-sections will fall in the range of 200-800.  To give you an example of how submitting all of your scores can work in your favor, here’s an example.  Let’s say that you sit for the SAT I three times between your junior and senior year.  Your results are as follows:

Your composite scores were 2110 in January, 2140 in May and 2140 in October.  If you opt for Score Choice, you could choose either the May or October sittings to submit your highest composite score.  However, if you chose not to use the Score Choice option, colleges would see all of your scores and render a final decision using the highest sub-scores from all three sittings:

OCTOBER 09: 740 in WRITING

JANUARY 08 or MAY 08: 720 in MATHEMATICS

MAY 08 or OCTOBER 09: 700 in CRITICAL READING

for a composite score of 2160, a score higher than any of your three individual sittings.  Of course, your admission officer will note that your Critical Reading score was 690 in January, but they will also see that it increased over the next two tests.  Though your scores were fairly consistent in Mathematics, they dipped in October; your admission officer will see that, too.  Much of this process is impressionistic and, if there isn’t anything else in your application to suggest that you are having difficulty in Mathematics, there is no reason to fret over this particular data point in your application.

Unlike a lot of folks, I’m not cynical about The College Board’s motivation for providing a Score Choice option.  Proponents of Score Choice believe it is a way for students to lessen the anxiety associated with standardized testing.  Detractors tend to complain that students are induced into more test taking and, therefore, The College Board increases its market share of the testing industry.  Many colleges require these tests and, as such, require applicants to make a decision about how to submit them.  The College Board offers choice.  I tend to think that most selective schools already have good hygiene around how they use tests, so students are not disadvantaged if they opt out of Score Choice.  Score Choice, as I see it, is one more reason for colleges to rethink collectively how and why test scores should be used the selective college admissions process.

Categories: Uncategorized

Tags: college board, common application, sat, score choice, standardized tests, yale

Concern About Score Choice

Posted by Erin Lewis at 9:56 am

Contrary to some reports, Score Choice is not a new College Board program, it’s simply a reincarnation of an old and controversial one.  Once again, colleges and universities have placed their stakes in the ground—some honoring Score Choice, others rejecting it.  Bloggers are spending a considerable amount of time asking readers what they think of it.  The program has elicited a range of opinions from parents, students and educators that run the gamut from enthusiastic support to vehement opposition.

Score Choice raises all the familiar concerns that the public and the academic community have about selective college admissions, in general.  Is it fair?  Will it raise anxiety among students?  Lessen anxiety?  What about kids who can’t afford to compete?

These are all acceptable questions, but the first issue in this debate that needs clarification is whether or not one’s test scores represent a fixed mark of ability or an acceptably mutable data point.  For some students, there is a fear that admissions officers will penalize a history of varied test scores.  Yet in my own experience, when it actually comes to rendering a decision, an admissions officer does in fact use the highest sub-scores of a testing record to make the case for admission.  Keep in mind, your admissions officer will have to be persuaded to admit you anyway.

There is, of course, the practical concern over how students who have tested multiple times with varying results should report their scores.  Yale, which does not participate in Score Choice, has a sensible solution for any student wishing to use the Common Application to multiple schools—whether they are applicants to Yale or not.  You can read it here.

Categories: Uncategorized

Tags: score choice, standardized tests, yale