Emily Guillen
Senior Editor
While the news that the University has been leaving out some SAT and ACT scores, therefore misreporting overall averages, came as a shock, four other colleges admitted to similar errors in the last year.
Similar to the University, Claremont McKenna College misreported average SAT scores that were above those now being reported as the true values. Additionally, they also over-reported the percentage of their incoming class who had graduated from high school in the top 10 percent. The school, along with the law firm O’Melveny & Myers LLP, published a report in April of last year with details.
Misreporting occurred again with Emory University announcing in August that it too had manipulated data regarding its entering classes. Their errors spanned from 2000 to 2011. The school did confirm that the correct numbers were used for the 2013 rankings in US News.
On Nov. 8, George Washington University announced it had misreported its high school class standing for their fall 2011 class. Unlike the other schools, the listing of GWU was changed to “Unranked” due to the fact that its ranking would have gone down. Other schools’ rankings were minimally affected and therefore remained in their spots on the list.
A month later, Tulane University informed U.S. News and World Report on Dec. 19 of its own situation of misreported data, but unlike our University’s error, Tulane’s pertained only to its Freeman School of Business. The school misreported in not only its average GMAT scores, but also its total number of applicants for fall 2011.
As a result, Tulane chose to hire two law firms to investigate further and provide true data.
Each case showed unique data that was misrepresented and reasons behind the errors were not all publicized, but that can only leave the public with the question, “Which school is next?”
Most facts and information provided by articles by U.S. News.