Posted on Mar 13, 2006

Scanning errors on 4,000 SAT exams have put college admissions officials to the test.
   Schools received word of the miscalculation last week. The brief letter sent by the College Board informed colleges of the number of erroneous scores they received, leaving schools to determine if the misreportings changed the outcome for affected applicants. Unfortunately in those cases,
   Most of the mistakes on the the burden falls on the applicants 2,400-point college entrance test to contact the school directly if were between 10 and 40 points, they feel the incorrect scores and only 16 changed by 200 points jeopardized their chances of gainor more, the College Board said. ing acceptance, he said.
   The scoring changes appear to “There will be ‘X' amount, and have made little or no difference we have no way of knowing who in an applicant's acceptance or re- those students are,” Andrea said. jection status in Capital Region colleges, with many institutions just weeks shy of making final decisions.
   “In looking at the early signs, it doesn't look as though [the scores] affect admissions or scholarships,” said Robert Andrea, director of undergraduate admissions at University at Albany. The school received 18,000 applications for the upcoming semester, he said.
   About 150 scores from the October SAT exam were sent to the
   Siena College received 48 wrong scores and The College of Saint Rose received three. Skidmore College and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute were not notified of any scoring changes, spokeswomen for both colleges said.
   Of Union College's 4,400 total applicants, only 40 received scores requiring adjustment, school officials said. None of the adjusted scores changed the applicant's original status.
   “We pulled every file, and in no case did the difference make a difference,” said Dan Lundquist, the college's dean of admissions and financial aid.
   Union places less emphasis on SAT scores than it does on overall high school performance, said Lundquist, who cited the recent scoring snafu as one pitfall of the tests.
   “Very clearly, the lesson here is that if you're going to place a lot of reliance on technology that is not 100 percent, then you have to place less emphasis on the results,” he said.
   Most of the errors involved tests taken in New York, New Jersey and California. Pearson Educational Management, the Austinbased company that scanned the tests, said the 4,000 exams may have been damaged when wet weather caused the paper to grow, forcing the oval answer indicators to move out of registration for the scanning head, according to Associated Press reports.
   College Board officials said the 4,000 tests translate to eighttenths of 1 percent of the 495,000 students who took the exam in October.
   The SAT is a three-section test with a maximum score of 2,400.

Posted on Mar 10, 2006

When Bobby Syed graduated from Union College in 2003, the Plano, Texas native knew he would end up back in the area. First, he returned for his MBA, which he completed last November.

After a short stint back in Texas, Syed came east again, this time to jumpstart his career. The 25-year-old Syed recently joined BullEx Digital Safety as chief marketing and sales officer.

The year-old North Greenbush company is one of the up-and-coming businesses in the region. BullEx markets a computer-controlled propane burner that is used to train people on how to use a fire extinguisher correctly.

Sales have been brisk for the unit, with hospitals, colleges and Department of Defense agencies all investing in the technology.

Syed helped demonstrate the product recently for members of the College's campus safety department outside of College Park Hall.

Syed said coming back to start his career with a start-up company was an easy decision.

“It's slowly and slowly been growing,'' he said of Tech Valley. “I think it's really ready to take off, and now is the time to get in.''

While at Union, Syed founded the College's Entrepreneurship Club. He and several other students created a company, Impermeable Molding, which advanced to the finals of the prestigious Tech Valley Collegiate Plan competition in 2004. The group did win the elevator pitch portion of the contest, giving a two-minute presentation to potential venture capitalists.

Coincidentally, Syed's group lost out in the overall competition to TekAlert, a company co-formed by Ryan O'Donnell, who now heads BullEx. BullEx won the $50,000 top award in last year's competition.

“We're thrilled to have Bobby join the BullEx team,” O'Donnell said. “He is an extremely hard-working, motivated, intelligent manager.''

Syed majored in economics and computer science at Union. He said the school, and particularly professors like Hal Fried, provided him with a solid education that will help his career.

“I loved it here at Union,'' he said while standing in the parking lot of College Park Hall. “After being here for so long, I feel comfortable here. I knew I would come back.”

Posted on Mar 10, 2006

When Bobby Syed graduated from Union College in 2003, the Plano, Texas native knew he would end up back in the area. First, he returned for his MBA, which he completed last November.

After a short stint back in Texas, Syed came east again, this time to jumpstart his career. The 25-year-old Syed recently joined BullEx Digital Safety as chief marketing and sales officer.

The year-old North Greenbush company is one of the up-and-coming businesses in the region. BullEx markets a computer-controlled propane burner that is used to train people on how to use a fire extinguisher correctly.

Sales have been brisk for the unit, with hospitals, colleges and Department of Defense agencies all investing in the technology.

Syed helped demonstrate the product recently for members of the college's campus safety department outside of College Park Hall.

Syed said coming back to start his career with a start-up company was an easy decision.

“It's slowly and slowly been growing,'' he said of Tech Valley.  “I think it's really ready to take off, and now is the time to get in.''

While at Union, Syed founded the College's Entrepreneurship Club. He and several other students created a company, Impermeable Molding, which advanced to the finals of the prestigious Tech Valley Collegiate Plan competition in 2004. The group did win the elevator pitch portion of the contest, giving a two-minute presentation to potential venture capitalists.

Coincidentally, Syed's group lost out in the overall competition to TekAlert., a company co-formed by Ryan O'Donnell, who now heads BullEx. BullEx won the $50,000 top award in last year's competition.

“We're thrilled to have Bobby join the BullEx team, O'Donnell said. “He is an extremely hard-working, motivated intelligent manager.''

Syed majored in economics and computer science at Union College. He said the school, and particularly professors like Hal Fried, provided him with a solid education that will help his career.

“I loved it here at Union,'' he said while standing in the parking lot of College Park Hall. “After being here for so long, I feel comfortable here. I knew I would come back.”

Posted on Mar 10, 2006

A newly renovated bar in downtown Schenectady will be the site Thursday of a happy hour hosted for young professionals by the United Way of Schenectady County, which hopes to spread the word about opportunities to volunteer in the community.

The Union Inn at 517 Union St., which recently underwent an extensive interior and exterior renovation, will be the gathering spot from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. for the Young Leaders Society, a new group that targets young professionals age 35 and under.

The Young Leaders Society draws young professionals from various businesses and non-profit agencies in Schenectady County, including GE Global Research Center, E-One, Lockheed Martin and Union College.

The society teamed up with the Downtown Schenectady Improvement Corp. to get more young people interested in volunteering.

Renovations at the Union Inn included a $137,000 upgrade to the facade, nearly half of which was paid for with a grant from the DSIC. Owner Joyce Fordham also renovated the interior, including new lighting and hardwood floors.

Mayor Brian U. Stratton presides over a 3 p.m. ribbon cutting Thursday at the bar.

Posted on Mar 10, 2006

With just weeks left for colleges to decide who to accept and reject, several Capital Region schools have been caught in a snafu involving 4,000 miscalculated SAT scores.

As a result, there's a last-minute scramble to ensure affected students get a fair shot at one of those coveted thick acceptance letters.

“It's created a lot of work that no one was anticipating,” said Michael Parker, a spokesman for the University at Albany, which got word a couple of days ago that it was sitting on 150 erroneous scores.

Earlier this week, the College Board, which administers the tests, acknowledged about 1 percent of the students who took the exam in October received scores lower than what they actually earned. The board notified both students and schools of the problem.

Most of the scoring mistakes were between 10 and 40 points, according to published reports, although some ran as high as 200 points. The highest possible score is 2,400 points.

Admissions officers were combing through files to determine whether they need to adjust any admissions decisions.

Dan Lundquist, dean of admissions and financial aid at Union College, said the school received 40 wrong scores, less than a percent of its applicant pool.

“Our view is that this is of 100 percent importance to each applicant,” he said. “Not 'less than 1 percent' of a problem.”

Most of the errors were in tests taken in New York, New Jersey and California. Siena College received 48 wrong scores, and The College of Saint Rose received three.

Two of those Saint Rose applicants were accepted, so the change made little difference. But the third had been rejected — and now Saint Rose will go back and see whether the extra 50 points coming the applicant's way would make a difference.

“Kids … feel so tense and challenged during this time, anyway, they really don't need anything like this to happen to them,” said Mary Grondahl, the school's vice president of enrollment management.

When students take the SAT, they can ask the board to forward their scores to schools, or they can pass the scores along themselves. The board notified schools of errors only if it passed the initial score along — raising concern among some that colleges don't know of all the problems yet.

“We're really going to have to rely on students calling us,” said Robert Andrea, UAlbany's director of undergraduate admissions.

Lundquist said students who didn't rely on the board “could fall through the cracks.”

High schools might also start hearing from affected students in coming days.

“It's so fresh, we don't even know yet,” said Albany city school district spokesman Ken Rawley.
 
Not all of the wrong scores received by colleges necessarily translated into an application. Sometimes, students will send scores to a school, then decide against applying.

Besides the obvious concern of determining whether any rejected students should have been admitted, Andrea said score changes could also affect scholarship eligibility.

“If your scores are in a certain range, it might mean money to you,” he said.

The mistake could heat up the eternal debate over the value of standardized testing.
 
“It's a serious, serious issue,” Grondahl said. The best way to handle it, she said, is to take an applicant's entire file into account — and use a test score to prove consistency, or a lack of it.