College Entrance Exams SAT Makes Waves with New “Adversity Score” Option Written by Emily Toffelmireon May 17th, 2019 I came to College Coach after working for many years in college admissions and high school counseling. As a school counselor, I assisted students in the college application process and wrote hundreds of letters of recommendation, while also helping them and their families cope with any emotional, social, and academic concerns throughout the year. I transitioned from the high school setting to the admissions office when I joined the University of Southern California as an assistant director, reading freshmen and transfer applications and collaborating on admission decisions for over 150 majors, including the liberal arts, engineering, business, cinema, and the fine and performing arts. I subsequently took on the role of senior assistant director in the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, where I coordinated the division's Mork, Stamps, Trustee, Presidential and Dean's merit scholarship selection process, as well as recruitment publications and outreach, and traveled everywhere from Honolulu to Miami presenting to and interviewing hundreds of applicants each year. Learn More About Emily adversity score, sat, standardized testing, standardized tests, The College Board made headlines this week with its new adversity score, which will be utilized by 150 colleges and universities this fall. The score will be calculated based on factors like neighborhood crime and poverty rates, parental income and education levels, as well as the curriculum and socioeconomics of the student’s high school. Given the current climate of college admissions thanks to high-profile legal cases like the Operation Varsity Blues scandal and the Students for Fair Admission v Harvard lawsuit, it’s unsurprising this news has been met with a wide variety of very strong opinions. Given how little we know of what colleges plan to do with adversity scores or how they may truly impact decisions, we at College Coach look forward to first learning more about the new policy implementation which, as with all things in the admission world, is probably more nuanced than it may seem at first glance. For the deepest dive on this story we’ve seen so far, check out The Wall Street Journal (subscription required). Related Resources Read | Posted on October 23rd, 2023 Should I Submit SAT or ACT Scores to Test Optional Schools? Read | Posted on June 15th, 2023 Standardized Testing Policies in 2023 Read | Posted on January 17th, 2023 Does Your PSAT Score Matter?
