Bucknell Admits Inflated SAT Scores

[DFW HOYA]

Letter from the president reports some standardized test scores were not counted when compiling the school's SAT ranges. He would not disclose whether, of if, athletes were among the scores affected.

"During those seven years of misreported data, on average 32 students per year were omitted from the reports and our mean SAT scores were on average reported to be 16 points higher than they actually were."

The last school to report such a violation was George Washington, which was delisted from the 2013 US News list of colleges as a result.

http://www.departments.bucknell.edu/Admin_Services/President/AA_01-25-13/SAT_Message.pdf

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/01/26/bucknell-misreported-test-scores-2006-2012#ixzz2J7HlD4o5

[Nickels]

That's pretty bad. A blatant lie and con preformed by the administrators. I hope they are canned.

[Franks Tanks]

xnonox

Bucknell's leadership has been excellent for the last 20 years or so, but this is a major mistake. I understand one man was responsible for submitting the incorrect information, but he was also operating without oversight.

[Nickels]

xnonox

Bucknell's leadership has been excellent for the last 20 years or so, but this is a major mistake. I understand one man was responsible for submitting the incorrect information, but he was also operating without oversight.
Yeah and Teo didn't know either.

Pretty convenient that only one person reports this with absolutely no oversight. I'm sure he wasn't the only person that knew this was going on. The other cheating administrators did a great in covering their own asses. I wonder how much the fall guy got payed.

[Franks Tanks]

Yeah and Teo didn't know either.

Pretty convenient that only one person reports this with absolutely no oversight. I'm sure he wasn't the only person that knew this was going on. The other cheating administrators did a great in covering their own asses. I wonder how much the fall guy got payed.

I don't care about this issue enough to argue, but the incorrect reporting resulted in a swing of 20 SAT points. No way a mass school conspiracy resulted in 20 points worth of a lie. Sounds like one guy was doing something shady, and the proper controls to monitor him or his department were not in place.

[Nickels]

and I'm sure it was an Excel error on his part too... no need for anyone to take accountability, this is 2013...

[HailSzczur]

xnonox

Bucknell's leadership has been excellent for the last 20 years or so, but this is a major mistake. I understand one man was responsible for submitting the incorrect information, but he was also operating without oversight.

I had a pretty bad run in with Bucknell and the whole admissions process 2 years back with some oversight problems. I am not at all surprised by this.

[bison137]

I don't care about this issue enough to argue, but the incorrect reporting resulted in a swing of 20 SAT points. No way a mass school conspiracy resulted in 20 points worth of a lie. Sounds like one guy was doing something shady, and the proper controls to monitor him or his department were not in place.


Not clear if it was anything shady or simply incompetence. Either way not good. The actual swing was 16 SAT points. But the reported ACT scores were actually lower than what they really were. If it was intentional, why would the same person intentionally report lower ACT scores? Not clear.

[Laker]

and I'm sure it was an Excel error on his part too... no need for anyone to take accountability, this is 2013...

Why are we being overcome by lies everyday in our society? And it isn't just the politicians of both parties- it is the athletes, the entertainers, etc. Lying is now acceptable. It used to be- it is ok to lie if you don't get caught. Now people get caught and it is still ok.

Someone has to be held accountable- but in a country where we let murderers lose to kill again- let drunk drivers get as many as two dozen offenses- priests get moved from one part of the country to another after they molest kids- someone needs to have their *** kicked.

[alvinkayak6]

Terrible PR for the school. It's already got a great reputation, so it's shameful to see a manufactured 20 pts score difference when it doesn't make that big of a difference.

[CID1990]

My wife is a Bucknell alum. Gonna go give her some *****.

[citdog]

My wife is a Bucknell alum. Gonna go give her some *****.


better be careful.......you know those redheads hold a grudge!

[superman7515]

I had a pretty bad run in with Bucknell and the whole admissions process 2 years back with some oversight problems. I am not at all surprised by this.

Glass houses bud...

http://radnor.patch.com/articles/grade-inflation-scandal-still-haunting-villanova


The Association of American Law Schools has placed Villanova University's School of Law on probation for two years for data falsification of its students' grades.

"The association, the main professional organization for law schools in the United States, said it stopped short of imposing tougher sanctions because Villanova had been thorough in investigating the scandal and taking steps to prevent future occurrences," reports Philly.com.

Susan Westerberg Prager, the AALS executive director, wrote in a Nov. 28 letter, that you can read by clicking here (http://www.law.villanova.edu/About%20VLS/AALS%20Executive%20Committee%20Decision.aspx), that "the misconduct was intentional and long-standing" and "it is so fundamentally inconsistent with basic concepts underlying AALS core values and bylaws."

[Go...gate]

We got grade inflation, we got SAT inflation....geez.

[jimbo65]

As I recall, Bucknell was not an initial supporter of fball schollies. Need to maintain the integrity of the student body and all that horse manure. Meanwhile cheating on reporting the SATs. What hypocrisy.

[Fordham]

oh jeez, jimbo, I disagree. I don't think they were holier than thou on the scholarship issue. They had some budget issues to work out and so were against it or in favor of delaying it but were pretty much always on board with going along with the group. You may be thinking of Weiss from Lafayette who was the public voice of the anti-scholarship group within PL leadershipo.

Further, threads like these are such holier-than-thou finders. The cheating here doesn't seem to have much if any of an effect on Bucknell's rankings if I understand it correctly. The real downside appears to be what the alums now have to go through in terms of everyone else getting on their soapbox and ridiculing them and telling them how corrupt their school is. If more info comes out and reveals it be more widespread or systematic, then fine, have at it, I guess. It just seems like such bad form imo when the reality is that we, as alums, really don't have any clue about the inner workings of our school to know whether or not it is (or could) also be happening there; yet, the minute a thread like this is created there's a long line of posters ready to rip.

[Lehigh Football Nation]

Further, threads like these are such holier-than-thou finders. The cheating here doesn't seem to have much if any of an effect on Bucknell's rankings if I understand it correctly.

I agree with the "holier-than-thou" sentiment, but I do feel the number fudging was quite significant. The difference between a 1300 and a 1325 on the SAT's is enormous.

[Pard4Life]

I agree with the "holier-than-thou" sentiment, but I do feel the number fudging was quite significant. The difference between a 1300 and a 1325 on the SAT's is enormous.

I think it is more significant with the larger incoming classes. BU is about 700... but still, it's nothing to sneeze at.

As a Lafayette grad, it is unfortunate, but I'll take it. Not having Bucknell appear in the rankings will benefit us. I have no sympathy. College admissions and recruiting is a zero-sum game.

[citdog]

I'd still like for someone to explain how you can only admit one black student in an entire class.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5_HmOGT8jM

[CFBfan]

I'd still like for someone to explain how you can only admit one black student in an entire class.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5_HmOGT8jM

every now and then 1 or 2 slips by them

[AmsterBison]

The last school to report such a violation was George Washington, which was delisted from the 2013 US News list of colleges as a result.


HAHAHAHAHA! Well, eliminating perspective students who use US News & World Report to make their college decision might hurt the SAT score, but it's bound to raise the average IQ.

[superman7515]

HAHAHAHAHA! Well, eliminating perspective students who use US News & World Report to make their college decision might hurt the SAT score, but it's bound to raise the average IQ.

Especially if they fail the part of the writing section where you have to tell the difference between words like perspective and prospective.

[Engineer86]

every now and then 1 or 2 slips by them

Not on the Lafayette team I saw whip Lehigh yesterday.

[Lehigh Football Nation]

I look at this from a different angle:

http://lehighfootballnation.blogspot.com/2013/01/bucknells-trouble-with-math.html

While we still don't know why their admissions office did this, there's a good chance IMO that this affected their football admits over a seven-year period.

[AmsterBison]

Especially if they fail the part of the writing section where you have to tell the difference between words like perspective and prospective.

Dang you to heck! :)

[bison137]

I

As a Lafayette grad, it is unfortunate, but I'll take it. Not having Bucknell appear in the rankings will benefit us. I have no sympathy. College admissions and recruiting is a zero-sum game.


USNews today affirmed that this did not affect Bucknell's ranking at all. There was a slight downtick in the average SAT, which counts for 7.5% in their formula - but as Eric has pointed out, Bucknell's rank relative to its expected graduation rate - which also counts for 7.5% - actually improved a bit due to the correction.

USNews:

Bucknell has provided U.S. News with new data it is reporting as correct. As a result, Bucknell's new average SAT math score for the fall 2011 entering class is now 665 versus the 672 as originally reported to U.S. News, a 7-point difference. The school's average SAT critical reading score for that period is now 626 versus the 635 as originally reported to U.S. News, a 9-point difference. The average ACT composite score for that period remained unchanged at 29.

The incorrect data were used by U.S. News to compute Bucknell University's ranking in the National Liberal Arts Colleges category in our 2013 Best Colleges, published last September. In the rankings methodology, we factor in the admissions test scores of all enrollees who took the SAT (math and critical reading) and ACT, which have a total weight of 7.5 percent in our model.

However, the difference between Bucknell's misreported data and newly reported data wasn't significant enough to affect the school's numerical rank. Therefore, based on our calculations, Bucknell's published numerical rank is correct and will not change.

[ngineer]

So they're still 'rank'? (;-)

[superman7515]

For the next installment of our unofficial FCS school/student scandal thread...

http://www.delcotimes.com/articles/2013/02/21/news/doc51268d84e758d276413037.txt (http://www.yorkdispatch.com/ci_22641329/police-villanova-student-taped-women-undressing)


RADNOR - A 20-year-old Villanova student is facing charges after police say he secretly videotaped three women while they were dressing. One of the women was 17 years old at the time, leading police to add a dissemination of child pornography charge in the case.

Tyler Jones, 20, waived a preliminary hearing Tuesday in connection with the charges. Jones has been charged with invasion of privacy, design of obscene materials, criminal use of a communication facility along with the dissemination charge.

According to police, Jones used his iPhone to secretly tape the women while they were visiting Switzerland. Once back at Villanova, police say he uploaded the videos to pornographic websites. One woman learned that she had been taped after she had been told by another person that a video of her getting dressed was online....

[HailSzczur]

For the next installment of our unofficial FCS school/student scandal thread...

http://www.delcotimes.com/articles/2013/02/21/news/doc51268d84e758d276413037.txt (http://www.yorkdispatch.com/ci_22641329/police-villanova-student-taped-women-undressing)

Yeah about that..... I don't really have anything to say except I knew the kid, and knew him well (as well as said dorm room at Nova where uploading occurred). This is shocking and I'm not really sure what more to say.

[Go Green]

Yeah about that..... I don't really have anything to say except I knew the kid, and knew him well (as well as said dorm room at Nova where uploading occurred). This is shocking and I'm not really sure what more to say.

Surrepetitous videotaping--repugnant as it is--has been around for a long time. We had a scandal along those lines at Dartmouth the year before I enrolled.

Uploading it to porn sites is taking it to a whole other level. Yikes. This guy is in a heap of trouble...

[HailSzczur]

Surrepetitous videotaping--repugnant as it is--has been around for a long time. We had a scandal along those lines at Dartmouth the year before I enrolled.

Uploading it to porn sites is taking it to a whole other level. Yikes. This guy is in a heap of trouble...

Not sure how the whole transcontinental thing complicates it either.... Sad to see one of the first people I met at Nova f' his life up so badly.

[Franks Tanks]

This is not a joking matter, but could you image being the guy who was surfing for smut and spotted his friend?

"Well I don't really know how to say this, but I saw a video of you on {insert funny sounding porn site name here} and just wondering if that was intentional. Just thought I would let you know".

[CFBfan]

not sure how this relates to a college misrepresenting sat scores

[superman7515]

not sure how this relates to a college misrepresenting sat scores

The same way those inflated SAT scores, with exactly ZERO evidence that athletes in any sport whatsoever were among those included, relates to a football discussion board.

[Lehigh Football Nation]

The same way those inflated SAT scores, with exactly ZERO evidence that athletes in any sport whatsoever were among those included, relates to a football discussion board.

Whether it was done because of athletics, I'm not certain. But the Bucknell manipulations certainly affected athletics:

http://lehighfootballnation.blogspot.com/2013/01/bucknells-trouble-with-math.html

[HailSzczur]

The same way those inflated SAT scores, with exactly ZERO evidence that athletes in any sport whatsoever were among those included, relates to a football discussion board.

Honestly I did also open myself up to getting posts of Nova's wrong doings by taking a jab at Bucknell's admissions department earlier by mentioning they screwed something up with my application. Difference between the 2 is Bucknell's was something wrong done by the university, this was something done wrong by an individual.

Needless to say I do agree this might be better suited else where