In late January, a seniorn administrator at Claremont McKenna College was removed for allegedly reporting inaccurate SAT entrance exam scores.
Richard C. Vos, whose name can no longer be found on the school’s web site, is accused of forging SAT scores dating as far back as 2005, according to The Washington Post. Vos is accused of falsifying the scores for a higher school ranking by publishers such as U.S. News & World Report.
By reporting inaccurate scores, Claremont would be considered one of the better schools in the country to attend.
According to the L.A. Times, scores that were being submitted each year were generally raised by ten to twenty points. In an interview with President Pamela Gann, the NY Times reported that one individual score wasn’t raised and that Claremont hired an attorney to conduct an independent investigation.
The college had reported a median SAT score of 1410 when the actual one should have been 1400 as well as the 75th percentile score of 1510 when the actual should have been 1480.
Along with Claremont, two other colleges were reporting false scores for a higher ranking. A former superintendent at Iona College in New York inflated scores and at Baylor University in Texas, students were bribed to retake the SAT for a $300 credit at the bookstore and a $1000 scholarship.
Closer to home, while Arizona State University was not listed as one of the colleges to inflate their scores, reports say that President Michael Crow earns a bonus, if the SAT scores are at an average of 1040 for the incoming freshmen. As of February 2012, 151 seniors from Perry have been accepted to ASU, according to Pat Phillips, in the career center.
This whole ordeal relates to how competitive the college admissions race has become in the wake of the popularity of rankings, especially those of U.S.News & World Report, which prove to be factual listings based on hard data.
In the end, this whole mix up has shown us how competitive the college ranking system truly is.