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Students are suing a major college admissions test maker for allegedly selling information about their disability statuses with universities, which they say could hurt their chances at getting into schools and impact the rest of their lives.
When students register to take the ACT—a standardized test used for college admissions taken by more than a million high schoolers each year—they answer a barrage of personal questions. As part of this, they are asked to note if they have disabilities that require "special provisions from the educational institution."
The ACT, which is administered by ACT, Inc., is the only real competitor to the College Board's SAT exam. The lawsuit claims that the ACT is selling the data it gleans from those student questionnaires—connected directly to students' individual identities—to colleges, which then use it to make important decisions about admissions and financial aid.
"A lot of students and parents have no idea how these testing agencies, which are gatekeepers to college, are using very sensitive and confidential data in the college admissions process," Jesse Creed, one of the plaintiffs' lawyers, told me in a phone call. "[Colleges are] hungry for disability data, because they have limited resources, and it's expensive to educate people with disabilities."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 15 2018, @02:43AM (6 children)
I knew which school I wanted. It took both. ACT was half the price. So I took the ACT had enough to get in. Done. Would do it again.
(Score: 2) by Mykl on Wednesday August 15 2018, @02:54AM (5 children)
Genuine question here - do your scores in High School count _at all_ toward your college entry? Or is it entirely based on your SAT/ACT score? In other words, would you potentially be able to coast through High School on straight D's, then ace the SAT and end up in a good college?
I ask because my country uses students' High School scores to determine College entry.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 15 2018, @03:08AM
Well this was 25 years ago. So at the time it was the score and HS plus a battery of tests. The tests were to see which level of math/English you plugged into. This was also when getting a 1600 on the SAT or 35 on ACT meant you could write your ticket to any college. Think they wildly changed the scaling on them now. I had between 21 and 34 depending on subject. Like I said it was mostly just to get in and could not afford anything really good. I had to get above 18.
These days the higher end schools want 1500+ and a bunch of extra after school activities (the right kind) plus straight A's in the lowers. Lower end schools are not as picky and mostly just want to get you into a loan. The federal loan program has really screwed up a lot of what is going on. Not sure there is a good fix for that, that would not obliterate the whole system.
(Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Wednesday August 15 2018, @05:02AM (3 children)
Depends on the college. There's no general standard. Most colleges will look at both. But high school standards can vary widely, hence the "standardized" score offered by SAT or ACT.
Many big colleges with overall high acceptance rate will sometimes have a minimum of X score on SAT/ACT *or* minimum grade average of X from high school.
More selective colleges often look at both, and the most selective programs will seriously consider lots of other factors (essays, recommendation letters, extracurricular activities, etc.).
Some colleges recently have decided the SAT/ACT are not as important and don't require them at all.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday August 15 2018, @05:20AM (2 children)
My high school GPA was 3.6. The valedictorian of the other high school in my town didn't even get interviewed.
The reason I got such low grades was that I regarded most of my high school classes to be a complete waste of my valuable time.
Instead, I was heavily into the theatre. I was a very poor actor so I focussed on sets and was the director of the set crew during my Junior and Senior years.
Also I started grinding, polishing and figuring my own telescope mirrors when I was twelve and kept that up partway through Caltech. Even among the astronomy department there was only one professor who had ever made his own telescope.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 15 2018, @05:28PM (1 child)
I graduated with a 2.1 GPA. My ACT scores were good though (perfect scores on English sections, near perfect science, 30 in math I think?), so I still got accepted everywhere I applied. Ultimately, finances were the deciding factor for choosing where to attend.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday August 15 2018, @06:05PM
Half of my class had 4.0 GPAs in high school. Some schools count pluses and minuses in their GPAs, so there were also lots of people who had 4.25 GPAs.
Oddly, many of my class were _required_ to attend a summer class before we started the regular school year. That class taught writing - despite having straight-As many of my classmates were unable to write even very simple essays.
I got 890 out of 900 on the Math II Achievement Test. That put me in the bottom half of my class.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]