College Admissions Counseling Blog

In October 2005 thousands of students took the SAT. This was not news until information started to come out that the scoring on many of those tests was wrong and in many cases lower than they should have been. Supposedly this occurred because of extra moisture in the area where the tests were being scored. A lawsuit resulted and it was announced today that the Collegeboard and NCS Pearson, the company scoring the tests, would pay $2.85 million into a settlement account to be used to pay damages to the students involved. Each student that took the October 2005 SAT is entitled to $275. If the student believes she can show damages greater than that they can file a form for additional review. Such forms are subject to binding awards made by a retired judge.

It is good that this matter has now been resolved but unfortunately many of these students will have no way of proving their damages exceed $275. While the mistakes in scoring may not have made any difference in admissions or financial aid, none of these students will truly know what it was that they might have missed. This news comes under the category of sometimes life just isn't fair.