Profiles of Local Schools: Score Choice

Starting with the March 2009 SAT test, the College Board will allow students to choose which scores to send to colleges. (This feature is already available to ACT-test-takers.) Ostensibly, the thinking behind this move is that if students know that they can withhold any particularly low score(s), they will feel less anxiety on test day and thus perform better. This policy will also work retroactively: if your child is applying this fall, for example, she or he will have the option to report or not report any score, including scores from tests taken prior to March 2009.

A December article in the New York Times (“SAT Changes Policy, Opening Rift with Colleges”) alerted us to the fact that many highly-selective colleges are rebelling against this change and requiring students to submit all SAT scores anyway, despite the College Board’s new policy. (The article names the University of Southern California, Stanford, Claremont McKenna and the University of Pennsylvania as four such schools.)

We wanted to find out how our local schools plan to deal with the Score Choice policy. Here’s what we learned:


Towson University: Towson will not require students to submit all scores. It is not a bad idea to submit all scores, however, because Admissions only considers the highest individual scores. In other words, if your October scores were a 600 in Reading, 500 in Math, and 700 in Writing (an 1800 total score) but your December scores were a 500 in Reading, 600 in Math, and a 750 in Writing (an 1850), Towson will actually consider your scores to be a 600 in Reading, a 600 in Math, and a 750 in Writing (a 1950).

Johns Hopkins University: Hopkins is still in the process of making this decision, but hopes to come to a decision in the coming month. The admissions rep we talked to, however, said, “There is a strong likelihood that we will be requiring students to submit all their scores.” Hopkins also considers only the highest individual section scores.

George Washington University: GW will continue to expect students to submit all their scores. For the SAT, Admissions considers only the highest score submitted for each section of the test; for the ACT, only the highest composite score.

University of Maryland: UMD will not require students to submit all their scores.

Georgetown University: Georgetown will continue to require students to submit all SAT and ACT scores, despite the new College Board policy. This school also considers the highest individual Reading and Math scores to come up with one “superscore.”

University of Virginia: UVA will use whatever information you allow the College Board to send, and will not require you to send all your scores.

College of William & Mary: W&M will not require students to send all their scores. The admission rep we talked to made a point that seems widely relevant: since W&M only considers each highest section score—whether or not the three scores (Reading, Writing, and Math) came from one test you took in March, or from three separate tests you sat for throughout the year—submitting all your scores can only help you. Let’s revisit our Towson example above. If you only looked at total scores and decided not to send that October 1800 score, but to send only the December 1850 score, then you have an 1850. You have to send the lower score to get that 1950!

Virginia Tech: Tech is going along with score choice, and is requiring students to send all their scores. They too will only consider the highest individual section scores.
James Madison University: JMU asks that you send all scores, and will consider the highest from each. (So send them all!)

George Mason University: GMU is not requiring you to send all scores. Again, because they only consider the highest score for each of the three individual sections, send them all. Worth noting: GMU offers “score optional admissions,” which means that you can get away with not submitting your SAT/ACT scores to them . . . so long as your GPA is strong and qualities such as leadership and motivation come through in your application.


The bottom line: The more times you take the SAT, the better. If your preferred school is going along with Score Choice, then you have no reason not to take the test as many times as possible and keep shooting for that high, high score. If your preferred school is not going along with Score Choice, then, yes, you want to try to keep those not-so-good scores off your transcript by preparing well. But so many schools consider only your highest individual section scores that having a spread of several different sets of scores will help you 99% of the time.

If you have questions about this stuff, give us a call or shoot us an email. If there’s a school you’re interested in but that isn’t listed here, we’ll help you find out what’s what.