<p>Hello all,</p>
<p>My daughter plans to apply for Ivy and other top schools next fall and it looks like Stanford is her top choice. She has great overall numbers:</p>
<p>Asian Female going to a public school (Junior this year)
4.0 UW GPA (taking all the toughest available regular and AP courses),
good-to-greatgreat EC and evidence of commitment to local community
SAT II Math 750 Sat II French 800
780 SAT I Math and 770 SAT Reading</p>
<p>However, her SAT writing score is only 640 (89th percentile) bringing her overall SAT score down to 2190.</p>
<p>Would you advise her to take SAT again to bring her total to > 2200 (I read in another thread that they tend to view 2200 and above as a group)? Would her weak SAT writing score have a major negative impact? She is confident of improving her score is she takes it again, but is it worth it (She plans to take Physics and Math II Subject tests in October.</p>
<p>Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>She still has one year left, so I say go for it =).</p>
<p>Your daughter's Math and CR scores are so outstanding, I really don't think that a relatively low Writing score (which many schools, even Ivies, don't pay much attention to) will have much impact.</p>
<p>That said, breaking the 2200 mark would be a nice psychological boost. Frankly, the Writing section should not be that difficult to improve into the 700+ range with a little work. That sections is sooo predictable.</p>
<p>Check with your daughter's college counsellor before you make any final decisions...a good counsellor will have a better feel for the current admissions picture.</p>
<p>Just for kicks, you daughter might want to consider the ACT...the format of the grammar section is easier for lots of students.</p>
<p>If you have EC in order, go for the retake. Just make sure she's confident she'll improve her score</p>
<p>Thanks for all the responses!</p>
<p>After discussing about it, my D has decided to retake in October. She thinks she can significantly increase the writing score while keeping the other two scores within the same range (Her June '07 numbers are 780, 770 and 640 ). Assuming that she gets 780, 770 and 750 in October, not only will she have good all-around scores, but she'd have also demonstrated that she has worked on the writing section during summer.</p>
<p>On this note, does anyone know if schools look at SAT score trends? In other words, would a school prefer candidate A, scoring 780, 770 and 640 on first attempt and 780, 770 and 750 in second attempt over candidate B who took the test only once and scored 780, 770 and 750? One could argue that, with so many top applicants, these top level-schools would try and infer as much info as possible about applicants. In the scenario above, candidate A has had an opportunity to show that he/she works on his/her problems and limitations, whereas candidate B's SAT score does not provide any information other than the absolute score.</p>
<p>Seems like you already know what to do. I don´t see any real question in your post.</p>
<p>Maybe you should post a chance thread for your daughter. Such as her entire transcript, including but not limited to: ap scores, sat II scores when they come, ECs, major, gpa, class rank, what aps she took, leadership programs, community service, etc.</p>