Taking A Deep Dive Into the College Board’s New Adversity Score

Helen13
Thu, 13 Jun 2019 23:06:26 +0000

I read the article and the metrics the adversity score includes.

From what I can tell, the colleges are already getting this information from the high school counselor or principal via the mandatory “school report.”

My daughter applied to colleges as a freshman for the 2018-2019 admissions year and will start at Amherst College.

She is a high school dropout so I had no college counselor to write her school report.

What I did, instead, was write about the statistics of our one and only local public school, and how her grades, classes, and test scores compared. I wrote about the racial and economic makeup of our town, as well as the percentage of college graduates.

The reason I included this information is I had no idea what a school report was. I called the high school guidance counselor who was of no help. So I started calling the admissions departments of the various colleges. They told me what they wanted to see.

Now, they have never heard of our little town. At schools that are recognizable, such as Thoms Jefferson or St. Paul’s, adcomms have a very good idea of where applicants stand against each other, and they have essays and CSS Profile forms to give a very detailed idea of financial situations.

Seems to me this just boils down the high school report so that it’s easy to compare. I also think it’s a marketing ploy to make the SAT more competitive against the ACT, to which it’s losing ground.

Kids on each coast take the SAT. The ones in the middle take the ACT, which is often state-mandated for high school graduation.

I expect this furor will only cause middle-class families to abandon the SAT.

But colleges are still getting this type of information directly from your high school guidance counselor, just like they always have.

Don’t think that just because you avoid the College Board, that the colleges won’t see similar information and compare your student to the community.