Bucknell University President John Bravman notified students and faculty on Saturday that the university had reported false SAT and ACT averages from 2006 to 2012, according to Inside Higher Ed. During each of those years, the university failed to include scores from between 13 to 47 students when determining averages, therefore raising the mean SAT scores by 7 to 25 points, according to a campus-wide letter from Bravman. ACT score averages were also inaccurate during the same period. The omitted scores did not come from any specific group of students, but were from multiple student segments, according to Bravman, who also noted that omitted scores were both higher and lower than the means. Bravman blamed the misreported scores on one individual, who Brayman said raised scores unintentionally.
A report by Wabash College shows that there is a minimal connection between the amount that colleges spend on education and the quality of education their students receive, Inside Higher Ed reported. Researchers tracked 45 colleges and universities, many of them liberal arts colleges, and examined their educational spending compared to measures that indicated increased learning. While researchers concluded that there is some impact of higher spending at some institutions, they argued that in many cases the gains are small compared to the costs. For example, 10 colleges profiled in the study had very similar scores on teaching practices, but spent varied amounts on student learning, with a difference of up to approximately $43,000 per student.
Student activists have designed a website modeled off of the Common Application, called the "Fair Common Application," that seeks to pressure the Common Application to modify answer options for nondiscrimination clauses to recognize undocumented status, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education. The website, designed by a student group called the Sudden Movement, closely imitates the design of the original Common Application website, and was designed as a creative protest. The student designers, who attend Bryn Mawr, Haverford and Swarthmore Colleges, have failed to persuade their admissions deans to take up the issue. Changes to the Common Application are only considered if officially suggested by one of the 488 member institutions. The students may face legal action for copyright infringement, according to The Chronicle.
