My questions is regarding the new SAT Score Choice where you can send your best SAT's or send them all. Is it preferable to send all of them or is their no differences?

In the above post, I laid out JHU's score choice POLICY. However, it is not as simple as that. The language the College Board has used in creating their “score-use practice descriptions” is a bit limiting. None of the six descriptions accurately reflect our testing policies, and have made it difficult to fully explain how we use test scores in our review process.

Therefore, when explaining score choice it is best for us to explain that our POLICY is as described as above, but our PREFERENCE is different. Our preference is that applicants SEND US ALL THEIR TEST SCORES. It is our recommendation that an applicant to Johns Hopkins submit all test scores (SAT / ACT / SAT subjects) when applying ... all test dates, all exams. This for us is the easiest policy and simplifies the application review process.

With this stated PREFERENCE that is different than our selected POLICY, some may be confused and ask why the difference. Well, we had thought about selecting the "All Scores" policy of the College Board and actually did so at first. However, the way the College Board defined that policy made it seem like every score that a student takes would matter in our Admissions review process. That was just not true ... as we are a school that looks at an applicant's highest test score sections even across different SAT dates (what many call superscoring). So though we would prefer to see all of applicant's scores, we did not want to make it appear that in our admissions review process standardized test scores are the most important factor and that we review every score a student has ever taken.

So since ALL SCORES really didn't match our methodology we selected the HIGHEST SCORES option. But once again the language that the College Board used to define this policy did not completely match with our admissions review process. Yes, when we review an application we focus on highest test scores however, we do want to know how many times a student has taken these exams and what the trend of their scores were throughout the multiple exams. The Admissions Committee does see value in reviewing test score trends and does see a difference between an applicant whose highest scores came over one / two / three exams versus an applicant whose highest scores come over five or more exams.

For these reasons, when asked about Score Choice we talk about our POLICY and our PREFERENCE. In simplistic terms, we would like you to send all of your standardized exams with your application and if so we will focus on your highest sections. We require though for you only to send us the exam dates with your highest sections. So yes, Hopkins participates in Score Choice, though we do so begrudgingly.

I know that admissions will not weight each of the SAT scores individually, but will they weight how many times an applicant has taken the test?

It just seems like this policy could be quite easily abused by someone who, say, decided to take the test three times and focus his entire energy in each individual test on one of the sections (one day aim for a high score on critical reading, the next time on writing, etc.). And this would seem to be overly disadvantageous to someone who only took the test one time.

Just an observation.

As I stated in my explanation above, it is our preference that applicants submit all of their SAT scores. The reason for this preference is the Admissions Committee is concerned with the number of times a student has taken the SATs and does review an applicant who has taken the exam once or twice differently than an applicant who has taken the exam four or more times. However, remember that this is just our preference -- our official policy is different.

The second part of your message hints at the major frustration we have with this new score choice policy. The policy can be abused by applicants and you clearly stated one such way. Unfortunately we are restricted by the policy language that the College Board has set forth. Also, note that colleges will not be informed whether a student has selected score choice.

In the end, test scores are just one of many factors the Admissions Committee will look at. We hope that applicants will heed our preference and submit all test scores, and allow the Admissions Committee to reflect on their highest scores.