As stressed as most high school seniors are these days ahead of early decision and early action admissions notifications, the anxiety level is much higher in Brazil, where the College Board’s November SAT was delayed for two weeks at the last moment.
Seniors hoping for one more chance to prove themselves on the SAT or SAT Subject Test before ED and EA deadlines were unpleasantly surprised when word came out just a day before the test that College Board, the publisher of the SAT and SAT Subject Tests, was unable to get its tests through Brazil’s notoriously strict customs regime. The result is that most Brazilian students scheduled to take their test(s) on November 7 now will only be able to take their test(s) on November 21. Consequently, some colleges won’t have the benefit of November test scores before having to make early decision and early action admissions decisions because scores usually take two to three weeks to be reported and most colleges send out EA and ED admissions notifications in mid-December.
While NACAC and other admissions advocacy organizations are eager to cry foul and plead for admissions deadline exceptions for students who suffer power outages because of a thunderstorm, such organizations are conspicuously quiet on the travesty befalling students in Brazil. The College Board itself should be advocating for seniors with early deadlines to be given a bit more time to get their scores into colleges, but College Board has not made any such announcement or request as of November 15 as far as I can tell.
I am asking for all colleges and universities to delay their admissions decisions regarding applicants from Brazil until these students’ November SAT scores are received. Colleges that fail to state their refined policies as a result of the Brazil November SAT delay are needlessly ramping up the stress in the lives of students who have worked very hard to apply to US colleges and universities in the first place. Some students in Brazil even need to fly to other cities to access an SAT test center. I am also asking for College Board to encourage colleges and universities to do the same, as it is College Board’s responsibility to get their tests to all test centers on time, even those in countries that have an amazing amount of bureaucracy.
Colleges and universities and the College Board often tout that the college admissions process needs to become more student-centered; yet, when there is a chance to actually advocate for the interests of students, in this case, those living in Brazil, the powers that be have remained silent so far. This is everyone’s chance to step up on behalf of students.
-Craig Meister, Founder of AdmissionsIntel.com
11/20/15 UPDATE:
In response to Craig Meister’s concerns, College Board has issued the following response:
Despite best efforts, an issue outside of College Board or ETS’s control involving interruptions in service at the point of entry and delivery of testing materials for the scheduled November 7th SAT administration to individual test centers in Brazil has resulted in a postponement of the test.
We are working with individual test centers and those students that were affected and have arranged alternate test dates for most centers. Information about SAT test center closings for the November SAT administration date will be posted to the College Board website as it becomes available. We urge our admissions colleagues to be flexible with students applying for early action/early decision deadlines with scores from the November SAT administration in Brazil.
We appreciate the patience and understanding of educators, students and their families.
Regards
Jennifer Karan
Executive Director
College Readiness Assessments
The College Board
We, along with many students, parents, and counselors in Brazil, thank College Board for issuing the above statement, and we again urge colleges to be flexible with students whose scores are delayed. – The Admissions Intel Team
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