As for taking tests in different states/schools from where one resides, that should be allowed - we travel often, and my kids have extracurriculars in different states. If we ever had to schedule the SAT or a Subject Test away from home (and close to an extracurricular event) so my kids could fit everything in that week, I would want that to be an option.
I therefore hope the College Board continues to allow for test-taking flexibility when it comes to location. Kind of like the accommodations thing - don’t let the ones who abuse the system ruin it for the honest folks.
Fitzgerald to Hemingway: “The rich are different from you and me.”
As an example, Julia Roberts took her kid to Europe for background in writing a history paper for middle school.
Oh, that’s easy. Just tell the kid that ‘everyone is doing it’. And with all the anecdotes out there: ‘50% of kids in zip code xxxxx are receiving accommodations’, why would a kid think differently? No different that kids sharing alderol or the drug enhancement du jour.
CollegeBoard and the Feds brought this upon themselves when they agreed to stop flagging extra time on test reports. (Plenty of us back the predicted this would happen – its just common sense that a lot more people will cheat if given the opportunity.)
USC is the least selective top 25 college for applicants from our school. It’s considered an easy reach as many who can’t make it into any another top 25 get accepted at USC. Our top students (who get accepted at other top 25 even into HYPSM) often gets rejected if they are NMS and didn’t name USC as their top choice or didn’t visit. Tuft’s Syndrome?
It would seem an easy fix would be to require students to take the test only at their home school, or if that school is not a test center, the nearest one that is. There are many test dates to choose.
Regarding why ACT/CB “doesn’t do anything.” No inside knowledge here, about that, but with respect to “how” so many are getting accommodated illegitimately, I suspect that perhaps several years ago there was a lawsuit or the threat of one/several. The reason I say this is that CB in particular, not that long ago, was quite the opposite from what you see today: They were over-the-top nasty about approving accommodations for clearly and abundantly documented, clearly already-accommodated in their HS, students. It wasn’t just that CB required a minimum of two years’ of demonstrated HS accommodation prior to being approved for SAT extra time. Even when all of the paperwork had been filed to regulation, CB’s m.o. was to deny, deny, deny as a matter of practice. Families with LD kids had to gear up for battle, and often lost that battle, quite unjustly from any objective measurement of that.
In addition, what one often sees during system overload (e.g., now illegitimate applications for extra time) is that the agency or company in question approves applications because it is overwhelmed with them. I don’t know if this is the case at the moment at CB, but a different example is the state of CA, whose State Dept of Education has been overwhelmed for years with serial applications for new charter schools. Lacking the time to sufficiently evaluate all of the applications, they have routinely approved them in large quantities.
@itcannotbetrue Post 3786
There are other high schools involved as well, one not named in your list. It’s in CA.
Relevant to your general point – I do not know the level of knowledge of the college counselor at that school. I have a private student at the same school, but he submitted his college applications with me – his private counselor-- not with his school counselor. (My student, while an athlete, is not a recruit and applied the normal way.) This also echoes @PetraMC in post 3827.
I may have mentioned this before, way upthread, but it’s worth considering that the way the UK handles applications through UCAS (somewhat similar to our Common App) is that the “tutor” (teacher recommender) looks over the whole application and affirms, with a signature, the truth of the contents. It is up to the tutor, therefore, to verify the accuracy of the student’s claims before signing off on them, or face penalties and jeopardize the student’s future. This is not what the role of any school counselor is in this country, and that is why many aspects of the submitted application could entirely escape their knowledge.
All credit card companies have sophisticated usage algorithms that identify credit card fraud almost immediately. My understanding is that the testing companies employ this technology to catch cheats, but it seems to me that it doesn’t work anywhere near as well as it should. In these cheating cases, you have kids taking tests thousands of miles from their homes, with special accommodations (extra time, only one kid in the room taking the test etc …), followed by a big increase in test scores. Why didn’t this combination of suspicious factors raise any red flags with the testing companies? I haven’t seen any answer to this basic and obvious question.
Keep in mind that some competitive sports have tournaments/games/meets nearly every Saturday - one my girls are involved in has a match every first Sat of the month (and often other Saturdays as well) year-round…which leaves exactly two dates out of the year free for SAT and SAT2 exams (late August and early December, when there are no meets). So not so many dates for us to choose from. Haven’t had to go out of town for SAT/SAT2s yet, and hope to never have to, but I can see how needing to test away from home might be a legitimate issue based on EC schedules.
Also, there are homeschoolers who travel frequently, and there are kids with divorced parents living in different parts of the country with weird visitation schedules, etc.
So maybe those who test away from home have to provide the College Board proof of the reason to do so? Maybe that would help. Otherwise, I’d still hate to see restrictions on where a kid has to take the test.
My son will be taking the SAT in May and June and will hopefully be happy with his scores. However if he needs a third time he will take it in August. But the weekend it’s offered we are going to be out of town. I told him he can take it in that town. So there are legitimate reasons why someone might take it out of town.
The way to handle the Activities section of the Common App would be for high schools to insist on the students themselves providing proof to the guidance counselor, ahead of submission. Thus, parent (if parent is literate in English) + student are separately, legally, responsible for the contents of the application. They attest to the truth of the application contents in an affidavit provided to the guidance counselor or college counselor at the HS.
I routinely tell my students that they should be prepared to document all that they represent on their Common App, in case their app is spot-checked by the college – especially the activities and awards sections. On occasion, I even tell them to provide, unasked, contact names, website links, etc., to verify years of participation and degree of accomplishment. This is especially if the activity is unusual or somewhat obscure.
Have I missed something in all the DOJ news about the scandal? I have heard:
mail fraud, wire fraud, honest services fraud, even money laundering
How about perjury? Is that in there anywhere? Perjury is a prosecutable offense that I believe usually results in jail time. I know that too many of us routinely sign all kinds of docs that ask us to “affirm,” “swear,” or “attest to,” without thinking about it, because we’re not in the habit of deceiving, but I think the seriousness of the claims on this kind of an application has not been emphasized enough by the Common App, the universities, and the high schools.
Your ‘easy reach’ example is an oxymoron. 'SC has gotten really competitive over the past few years. They are still big on legacy. They have been ‘recruiting’ internationally for more than ten years, particularly in Asia, for full pay students.
[How about perjury? Is that in there anywhere? Perjury is a prosecutable offense that I believe usually results in jail time. I know that too many of us routinely sign all kinds of docs that ask us to “affirm,” “swear,” or “attest to,” without thinking about it, because we’re not in the habit of deceiving, but I think the seriousness of the claims on this kind of an application has not been emphasized enough by the Common App, the universities, and the high schools.
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Lying on a college application is not against the law. It may be against school and Common App rules/regs, but not sure any state or the federal government has an actual law against it. The Common App would come under contract law. The Common App folks could conveiably sue the fraudulent applicant, but for what damages? The college has recluse to expel.
Yes, people might have to miss a game/vacation/recital or decide not to take an exam for the third time. There are always choices students make as to their priorities. Exceptions for chemotherapy therapy treatment far away, or a relative’s funeral? Of course. But we all have busy schedules of planned and routine activities we work around regularly, and I am sure almost all of us could make exams at the hone school work if we wanted to.
Yeah, already doing that for the SAT2 this June. Huge competition with regional championship on the line. Have to miss it for SAT subject tests. Would really like to never have to do that twice in one year (for the SAT this fall). Two misses and she’s definitely lost the championship. One, she still has a chance.
If getting extra time is allowed, then so should being able to test away from home. Documentation for both situations, sure. But to punish all for the bad actions of a minority? No.
Fortunately, the SAT is offered on 4 different dates during the Fall. If none of those work, perhaps parents should discuss the scheduling situation with the director of an extracurricular activity that prevents college testing.
