Starting in 2010, Students Can Select the SAT Scores That Reach Colleges

From the Chronicle of Higher Education

Starting in 2010, Students Can Select the SAT Scores That Reach Colleges

The College Board is going to increase the amount of control students have over which SAT scores college-admissions officers can see, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The new policy, which was announced on Friday and is scheduled to take effect with the high-school class of 2010, will let students take the test multiple times and select those scores that they want to reach admissions officers. Now colleges get all of the scores but are supposed to take into account only the highest ones. Laurence Bunin, a senior vice president of the College Board and general manager of its SAT program, said in a letter to members of the organization that colleges could still set their own policies on whether to require applicants to send all of their scores.

Critics say the new policy will stack the test in favor of students from families with enough money to take the test repeatedly. But Mr. Bunin said the new flexibility was intended to make the testing experience less stressful for all students. —David L. Wheeler

A Great Book for Parents

I would encourage all St. Edward High School parents to consider reading College Admissions Together: It Takes a Family by Steven Roy Goodman and Andrea Leiman.
The following description is from Amazon.com.
College Admissions Together is more than a practical how to get into college book, though it does explain key aspects of today's college admissions process for both parents and students. It is a guide to healthy family relationships during the college admissions process. This invaluable book looks at the often stressful process of finding the right college for your child not as an ordeal but as an opportunity to bond as a family and to give your child safe passage to adulthood as he or she determines which colleges are the best fit. In College Admissions Together, educational consultant Steve Goodman and family psychologist Andrea Leiman help parents recognize that what makes the college admissions process a potential danger zone for families is the combination of the teen's growing independence and the parent's need to help him or her make critical decisions for the future. They answer difficult questions like how to stay involved in the process while allowing your child to make more choices. They help you put the college admissions process into the context of your child's passage to adulthood and understand what he or she is feeling and facing as your child makes the decision of where to go next. Using Goodman and Leiman's advice, tips, and exercises, the college admissions process will lead to a greater appreciation of each other and mutually rewarding family relationships that last a lifetime. College Admissions Together serves families, counselors, teachers, and others as an essential resource during a stressful time in most families' lives.