The Impact of SAT Changes on #UVA Admission

The College Board made some changes to their standardized testing public earlier this week. They will stop administering the SAT Subject Tests and SAT Essay in June. The Subject Tests haven't been all that influential in our process in many years. We never shifted to using the SAT Essay when it was introduced in 2005. To me, the announcement wasn't a big deal and it wasn't a surprise. Plenty of admission officers and school counselors have predicted that the Subject Tests wouldn't exist in the future. Applicants don't even ask me about those exams all that much.

Imagine my surprise when I started doing my morning review of social media and saw worried students writing post after post on reddit's Applying to College subforum about the announcement. Some of the same chatter was on other social channels. I'm going to address the three big questions I saw raised.

1. How does this change the admission review process?

Very little. I joked with one student that this might save us about 3 seconds here and there. The results of a one-hour, optional exam were never all that impactful. It takes a couple seconds to glance at test scores. The bulk of our time is spent on the other parts of the application.

2. How will students show deep depth and understand of specific subjects?

Subject Tests didn't give me the information I needed about a student's preparation in each subject area. That's what the transcript did. I'm more interested in sustained classroom performance than a test score. After all, we are building a community of scholars here. We want people who will contribute to classroom discussions, not people who just show up on test day.

3. Will this Make the SAT More Important?

I can see where this idea comes from. A lot of students assume the different parts of the application are assigned weighting in a rubric or formula, so they think that removing one item from the testing piece would make other items in that category more important. If you're a longtime reader, you know that I cringe a little when "weight" comes into the conversation because we don't have a rubric here. We don't assign a score to the different parts of the application. The SAT won't have any more prominence in the future than it did in the past. The transcript (3+ years of coursework and grades, not GPAs) remains the most important part of your application.

As always, I'm happy to answer questions in the comments below.

If you need a laugh, check out my story about taking the French exam from back in our "recommended" days. I still shudder over that.

The Role of Standardized Testing in the #UVA Admission Process

My information sessions are a bit unconventional. I'm told they are helpful because I'm forthright and talk about how we read files instead of just rattling off statistics. I'm thankful that I work at a school where we haven't been pressured to drive up applications, so information sessions can be about helping families understand what we look for in our process and not coaxing more people to apply.

Every now and then, I'll finish a session where I've talked about how we read a file, with heavy emphasis on core classes and rigor, and every question will be about standardized tests. I don't emphasize testing in my talk, as it's a four-hour component of the application and the other parts of the application represent years of development.

Every component of the application is important, but remember that the 6-7 semesters of work we see in your transcript will take precedence over a couple Saturday mornings taking a standardized test.

Superscoring
Remember that UVA superscores the tests as well. Back in the paper days, we'd circle the top score for each section of the exams. When we went paperless over a decade ago, we taught our system to superscore for us. Our system automatically pulls the best scores from the SAT and ACT for us to review. We explain this in the application instructions.

One tip for ACT takers: Don't calculate a new ACT composite score on your own. Report your scores as they appear on your score report. There's a reason for this...

When to Send Official Scores
You will be required to send official score reports if you are admitted and decide to enroll at UVA. We check each official score report against what was self-reported on the application. The students who calculate new composite ACT scores get flagged in that process as having reported incorrect scores.

What are your questions about how UVA looks at standardized testing?

Heads up: Order Test Scores Well In Advance of Deadlines

I started writing posts about the timing of test scores a few years ago. The posts always seemed most appropriate for October, a few weeks before the first application deadline (our Early Action deadline is November 1). A colleague told me something she learned on a conference call a couple weeks ago that made me think a summer post was more appropriate. Seeing the info repeated on the SAT website confirms the move.


Be sure to send your scores well before the deadline. The SAT is saying it could take them longer to deliver scores from the Fall 2016 test dates. The last recommended test dates have always been the month before the application deadline. Be sure to use your free reports to make sure scores get to us before the deadlines.


From the SAT website:

We built our system to automatically select the best scores from each section of the SAT. When we open a file, we don't see all of the scores the student has submitted, we just see the best ones. So, there is no need to wait to see your scores and then spend money sending just your best ones to us. Use those free reports!
 



In case you are wondering about ACT score delivery:

The Timing of SAT Score Reports

I've written about the timing of SAT score reporting in the past and it seems like a good time to revisit the topic. First of all it is worth mentioning that the UVA Application Instructions page has a link to a page all about standardized testing.

There are going to be three parts to this post.

1.  How we (and many colleges) receive your SAT scores.
2. The timing of SAT score reporting.
3. What happens if you send scores after the deadlines.

This is going to be a long post, but I think understanding the logistics of score reporting will answer a lot of the questions we are getting right now.

1. How UVA Receives SAT Scores

We get a lot of email from people who ask if we will "accept" scores sent way before or way after a deadline. If you understand how scores get here, you'll know the answer.

Most colleges (UVA included) receive scores electronically. We do not accept or reject the scores, they arrive automatically. At slow times, the reports come once each day. Around deadlines, the reports come more often. I get an email every time there's an electronic transfer, regardless of whether the delivery is of one person's scores or of a massive group of scores from a popular test date.

2. The Timing of SAT Score Reporting

Now, let's talk about timing. The good news is that ETS has improved a lot over the years when it comes to how long it takes them to deliver scores.

If you have UVA listed as a school that should get your scores up front, the scores arrive pretty quickly.

However, if you wait to see your scores and then submit a request that UVA get them, it will take much longer. As a result, we do not recommend waiting to see scores before sending a report. ETS isn't totally consistent in the dates that they say they'll deliver scores. There's one spot where they say it'll take five weeks for colleges to get scores.

Screen shot taken here, 12/1/2015

However, the SAT folks assured me via Twitter last year that the five week wait is for international schools and most scores are sent to colleges one to two weeks of a request being made. If you are applying for Regular Decision and are reading this, send your scores well in advance of the deadline.

3. Sending Scores After Deadlines

In the first part of this post, you saw that we don't accept or reject score reports that come to us from ETS. So let's talk about what happens if you send scores after the deadline.

In our application instructions, we say that the last recommended test date is October for Early Action students and December for Regular Decision students.

If you take tests on those dates and designate in advance that UVA should get your scores, we know your scores will be here when we start to review your file. This doesn't mean you aren't allowed to send scores from tests taken after the deadline. It just means that there is a chance that we will have already started to review your file before those scores arrive.

You should still send those scores. After all, our review takes a few months and there's a possibility we'll be looking at your file several times after the scores arrive. Make sure there are SAT or ACT scores in your file by the deadline, but it is perfectly fine to send updated or new scores later.


Feel free to ask questions about testing in the comments!

Jack isn't stressed about testing at all.

SAT Subject Test Score Reporting

*This post is from 2014. There have been significant changes in testing policy since.*

When I was in high school, the SAT Subject Tests (or SAT IIs) were called the Achievement Tests. That term, in my mind, gave them a positive connotation. I was proud to have taken them...until I took the French test.

I considered myself a super star in French. I had natural language abilities and eagerly absorbed new vocabulary and grammar. When it came time to take the French Achievement Test, I was prepared, but still a little nervous, as most students who take standardized tests tend to be. I cruised through the first part of the test, but came to a stop when a reading passage was about a word I didn't know. I remember counting the questions below the passage and wondering how much of a hit my score would take if I bombed every one of them.

That night, I probably talked to everyone in my AP French class. We had all been in the same boat. On Monday morning, our French teacher told us that the word was archaic, which was probably why we hadn't come across it before.

Though I took other subject tests (back then, writing was a Subject Test and many top schools required it), the only test I remember is that French test. I hated seeing the score on my College Board score report and like many of you, I assumed that admission officers would zero in on that one score. I was so wrong! Here's the thing that most students don't realize: when we read a file, we are looking for reasons to admit an applicant, not deny them. I'm not saying that I think the admission officers who read my file ignored that French exam score, but I bet they didn't fixate on it the way I did.

Advice for Those Worried about the SAT Subject Tests:

1. We strongly recommend, but don't require Subject Test scores for several reasons.  If a school you love strong recommends that you do something, try to do it. Try to get the Subjects Tests into your schedule.

2. If you take the Subject Tests, send your scores using the free reports. Waiting to see your scores before sending them will delay their arrival in our office.  These are one-hour exams and while they are interesting and helpful, they don't derail an application, so one not-so-great score is not going to negate all the great work you've been doing in other areas.

3. If you can't take the Subject Tests, let them go. There are only a couple more opportunities to take them if you are a senior. Since they aren't required, you won't be penalized if they aren't part of your application.