It never occurred to my husband and me that we needed to follow-up with college admission offices after our son took the ACT and SAT exams. As any high school student who has sat for the college entrance exams will attest, he/she has provided the ET or College Board with the names of schools that should get their scores. Only a small percentage of students choose to wait until they know their scores before deciding to send them on to their chosen schools.
No matter what, the trust is there that the scores are sent to the colleges of choice and that the admission offices will receive the scores and file them.
Well, you could imagine our surprise when we took our son to a college visit, met the admissions officer assigned to our area, and found out that only one of the ACT scores was on file. Our son had taken the exam in December 2010 and in Feb 2011, and the only score the school had was the one from December. The problem for my son was that he did extremely well on the Feb test.
My son panicked and asked “Do I need to take the ACT again?” The admissions officer recommended we call the ACT Testing and try to find out if the scores were sent. One call to ACT started a ping pong game as I was told the scores were sent, and the school admissions staff insisted the scores were not sent. After several calls, I decided to call the other 3 schools on the list that were supposed to get the Feb scores; none of these schools had received the scores either.
I was about to go ballistic with ACT customer service when a very friendly and competent admissions officer at a Midwest university told me she would check her hard copies of the ACT results. It seems that all colleges/universities get their scores electronically but many schools also ask for paper results. The admissions officer was able to find my son’s Feb scores and enter them manually into their computer file of prospective students.
I called the university that started this roller coaster and told the admissions officer that the scores had been sent, but none of the schools had received them electronically and they needed to check their paper copies. I was told the school did not receive paper copies of college entrance exam results, and I felt my blood pressure go up. I insisted on speaking to a supervisor, and I explained the problem all over again. The young lady was courteous and assured me that she would look into it and get in touch with me by e-mail by the end of the day.
After all was said and done, she located my son’s Feb scores and assured me in writing they were in his file at the admissions office. There was no way we were going through this again so my husband and I called all the colleges my son was planning to apply and checked to make sure all his SATscores were in.
I cannot help but imagine: what if the school never saw his second ACT score. As a very selective university it could have meant a no acceptance letter in the mail next April.
So seniors and parents of seniors beware; even though college testing services send scores as promised and college/university admission offices start files on students and gather data. Mistakes happen in our not so perfect technically advanced world. Call the schools and make sure your student’s scores are in!
While you make a list of schools to call, have your son/daughter work on vocabulary:
1. Throng (noun) a large group of people; a large number
2. Thwart (verb) to oppose or baffle, to prevent from happening
3. Tier (noun) a row, rank or layer of articles
4. Timorous (adj.) fearful; expressing or suggesting timidity
5. Tinge (noun) a slight trace, stain; to affect or modify in character
Word Count: 690/3,000
