SAT Reporting Puts UCs at Disadvantage

Colleges & Universities University of California - San Diego
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<p>This thread is from the Berkeley forum but it’s relevant to UCSD as well…</p>

<p>(where ever it says ‘Berkeley,’ replace with ‘UCSD’)</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.virginia.edu/undergradadmission/profile.html[/url]”>http://www.virginia.edu/undergradadmission/profile.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p><a href=“http://www.ophs.opusd.k12.ca.us/new_admissions_tes.htm[/url]”>http://www.ophs.opusd.k12.ca.us/new_admissions_tes.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Note the difference in how UVA and UCs look at SAT scores. UVA (and every other school I can think of) add the highest scores from each INDIVIDUAL section together to come up with a composite SAT score for that applicant. UCs on the other hand, only take the highest ONE-SITTING score.</p>

<p>So suppose a person took the SAT three times and got:</p>

<p>M700 V700 W680 the first time
M700 V680 W700 the second time
M670 V700 W710 the third time</p>

<p>Note how the above is a very plausible scenario</p>

<p>UC Berkeley would interpret this person’s score as being 2080 while UVA would interpret this person’s score as being 2110 (700+700+710).</p>

<p>If you factor this disparity into US News’ SAT reporting, all the UCs should have at least 20 points added to their reported SAT range. With this in mind, UVA would be far off from Berkeley in terms of SAT alone.</p>

<p>I don’t understand why UC turns a blind eye to these kind of issues…it puts us at a disadvantage when we try to lure top applicants into our schools. I have no doubt that this policy came about as an attempt to “level the playing field” for under-represented minorities who most often times take the SATs only ONCE. HOWEVER, other schools don’t play by these rules and hence we suffer in the rankings…it would make a big difference if the 75th percentile for the (old) SATs were 1470 instead of 1450 for Berkeley…at least in the minds of most potential students who look at the aptitude of their peers and at USNEWS rankings when deciding whether or not to enroll at Berkeley.</p>

<p>Tell me what you guys think…I think it’s time for an aggressive policy change that will allow us to lure more top applicants and still manage to bring under-representative students into the campus.</p>

<p>And now that there are 3 sections to the SAT instead of 2, UCs are going to slip even more in the years to come…</p>

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<p>who cares?</p>

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<p>yeh i never really thought abt it…good read man</p>

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<p>30 points means losing competitive students? Come on now…</p>

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<p>30 points definitely lose competitive students.</p>

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<p>And you all know that the UC’s are the system responsible for added that dreaded new essay/writing section, right? They threatened to pull out of using SAT scoring as part of applications, and use only ACT’s unless the writing component was added. Many schools this year are not even looking at the writing score because there is no history for comparison…so all you '06-ers had the privilege of being the guinea pigs and many not reaping the benefits for an extremely competitive admissions year if you did well on that section.</p>

<p>Just my two cents…</p>

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<p>so I’m totally relying on the US News and World report to make my college decisions … it’s about time someone stood up to them</p>