DS is veeeeery interested in Princeton for economics. I think he has all of the right stuff to be a legit candidate- and we are also aware that it can be a downright mystery who gets in and who doesn’t so obviously we are looking at a broad range of schools.
4.6 W/ 4.0 UW
1 class rank
class president
varsity athlete
lots of volunteer stuff
etc etc.
Just got his first SAT back at 1560… ahhhh. Just missed one on each side- tough curve on math this time. Thought we’d ask here about retaking or just sticking with this score. Could it hurt him if it were to go down? Or can he just send the highest?
A 1560 won’t be the reason he is denied. His time is better spent on his app’s, maintaining his rank, quality time on his EC’s, SAT2’s if he has not ticked that box or just enjoying senior year.
Just a reminder that Princeton requires a graded written paper, preferably in English or history, as part of its application process. I don’t see a need to retake the SAT to better his score that is already among the top. Princeton values significantly their students’ service to others, and your son has volunteer works to help demonstrate this. I suggest concentrating on the all-important essays and short answers. Good luck.
Yes, as BKSquared stated, 1560 won’t be the reason your son is denied. It’s better time and energy spent on improving the qualities in his other areas of application, particularly in qualitative aspects of it.
He can just send in the highest, but honestly at 1560 there’s no reason to try again. It’s definitely high enough.
Many people on here will say, “a 1560 [or some other high score] won’t be the reason he doesn’t get accepted.” Of course that’s true, but it reflects poor analysis. The real question is whether a higher score could help in the context of a particular applicant’s entire application.
In my opinion, for the overwhelming majority of applicants, even a 1600 won’t add appreciably to a 1560 application such that it would be worth the time to prep. Sure, if he won’t waste any effort that would detract from other portions of the application, no harm in retaking again. But as others have pointed out, there are almost certainly better uses for the time.
Poor analysis? Funny… Aren’t your statements here basically the same repetitive statements made by those who said “a 1560 won’t be the reason he doesn’t get accepted”? Or, am I just missing a hidden brilliant analysis?
I’ll go one step further. Retaking the test after scoring 1560 may make the college think that you’re obsessed with high scores, assuming you’ll send in both sets of scores for a “higher” superscore because the likelihood of one lower component score along with one higher component score in the second test is non-trivial.
“whether a higher score could help in the context of a particular applicant’s entire application” Yup. Entire app and the supps. That includes how well you understand what you’re applying for. It’s never “just” stats.
1560, at its most lopsided would be 800/760. Fine enough. But miss the rest of what a college wants and thud.