UF admissions is navigating the changes to the SAT like rising high school seniors.
The SAT, often considered in college admissions, is adding an “Environmental Context Dashboard” to the exam. UF is still figuring out how it will apply the new system, which measures a student’s access to resources.
The dashboard, also called an “adversity score,” looks at high school environment indicators like average number of AP classes taken and percentage of students eligible for free or reduced lunch, College Board spokesperson Jaslee Carayol wrote in an email.
Carayol said it also factors in neighborhood data like familial income and crime. The dashboard excludes the consideration of race and does not alter the score.
“Our focus is finding merit and resourcefulness of students,” Carayol said.
College Board piloted this new system at more than 50 colleges and universities, including Florida State University. UF was not part of the pilot and has yet to look at how it will impact admissions or how it will use the new dashboard, UF spokesperson Steve Orlando wrote in an email.
For now, UF’s knowledge of the score’s impact is fairly limited, he said.
“We are currently evaluating its use for future years,” Orlando said.
