Students to choose SAT scores to share

High-school students seeking to put the best shine on their college applications will soon be able to choose which of their SAT scores to share with admissions officers and which to hide, the College Board said Friday.

The new policy, starting with the class of 2010, will allow students to take the widely used college-entrance exam multiple times without admissions officers seeing their less-than-stellar efforts. Now, colleges receive scores of all the times a student attempted the test, whether the results were spectacular, mediocre or worse.

"Students were telling us the ability to have more control over their scores would make the test experience more comfortable and less stressful," said Laurence Bunin, senior vice president of the SAT. "We can do that without in any way diminishing the value and integrity of the SAT."

The College Board, the nonprofit organization that owns the test, made the change at a time some universities are placing less emphasis on standardized testing in choosing prospective freshman and as the rival ACT exam is gaining popularity.

The new SAT scoring option, approved Thursday by the College Board's trustees, mimics the ACT's long-standing policy.

But some high-school counselors and college-admissions officials voiced concern that the new rules would most help affluent students whose parents can pay for multiple SAT attempts, at $45 a sitting, and pricey coaching.

Most students take the exam twice, once each in their junior and senior years. The College Board waives the fee for lower-income students to take it twice.

Under the new policy, students who take the SAT or the supplemental SAT subject exams multiple times will be able to decide whether to let colleges see one, some or all of their scores. Students must opt into the program online or on the telephone; otherwise all scores will be shared.