By Doug Fletcher,Staff Writer

A foul-up in SAT scores appears to be having a minimal effect on Maine colleges.

The College Board said Wednesday that about 4,000 students were affected by scoring errors on tests the students took in October. Most of the affected students were credited with lower scores than they actually received, sometimes off by as much as 200 points.

Few of the affected students, however, seem to have applied to Maine’s colleges and universities.

The SAT, or formerly Scholastic Aptitude Test, is a standardized exam frequently used by colleges and universities to aid in the selection of incoming students. It is administered by the private College Board and is developed, published and scored by the Educational Testing Service.

Bates College spokesman Bryan McNulty said fewer than 20 of the Lewiston school’s 4,500 first-year applicants had SATs that required revisiting. Of those who did, he said test results didn’t change by more than 20 points.

“We’ve made no changes” in admissions as a result, McNulty added, noting that Bates doesn’t require SATs as a condition for acceptance.

Sue Danforth, a Bowdoin College spokeswoman, said the scores of 16 applicants there were in error. Admission officials at Bowdoin have been reviewing the applications to determine if the scores would result in any changes in admissions.

Bowdoin, like Colby, hasn’t yet notified students of their acceptance or rejection.

At Colby, Ruth Jacobs, a college spokeswoman, said “a handful” of applications were tied to incorrect SATs. She also said the wrong scores didn’t appear to be critical in deciding on admission.

Six University of Southern Maine students had faulty SAT scores, said Dee Gardner, who heads up the college’s admissions department, which is on its Gorham campus. Of those, three were admitted and one applicant was rejected, but the SAT score errors weren’t a factor in the decisions to accept or reject.

USM is waiting for more information from the two other students before acting on their admission applications.

Danforth said none of the six had sought admission to USM’s Lewiston-Auburn campus.

“We’re probably less affected than any university in Maine,” said Eileen Reading, assistant director for admissions at the University of Maine at Farmington.

The school doesn’t require its applicants to submit SAT scores, and doesn’t consider the scores while deciding admissions, Reading said.

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