College policy making is not easy and most colleges try to make policy that benefits students. While many colleges have taken the position that they will accept both the new SAT and the old SAT for the class of 2017, Virginia Tech has decided to boldly go where most colleges have not. They have decided NOT to accept the old SAT for the class of 2017 and beyond.
When I called an assistant director of admissions at VT to ask about the new policy, I was told that there would be no exceptions. I explained that one trend that I have noticed with the highest achieving students is that they tend to take the SAT early which means that there are eleventh graders right now who have taken the old SAT who may need to take the new SAT if they want to apply to VT (unless they plan to take the ACT and use the ACT for VT). She acknowledged that VT realizes that is the case but has estimated that will only affect 1% of their applicants.
I can understand that two types of SAT tests in an incoming pool of applicants will be a wrinkle for admission decisions. Most colleges have stated that they will accept both tests but allow super scoring only when a student has taken the same test more than one time (as opposed to taking two different versions of the SAT).
This is an interesting policy decision. It will be equally interesting to see if this policy decision affects the decisions of those high achievers on whether they will apply to Virginia Tech.