Accidentally Sent Terrible SAT II Scores

I have never taken the SAT II scores before and I took them in October. I sent it to eight schools (fee waiver let me choose four more) before I took it. Those schools included Stanford, Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Cornell, Vanderbilt, and USC. Those schools have my scores. US History: 600. Math 2: 650. Literature: 790. I am retaking US History and Math in December, but I am applying to Stanford Early Action. Stanford does not require SAT II’s. Is there any way for me to have Stanford take into consideration only my Literature score, even though they have all three scores?

There is absolutely no way I will get accepted if Stanford views US History and Math 2 scores as part of my application. Thank you so much

Not sure about the answer to your question, but congrats on the amazing lit score. How did you study for it and which prep books (if any) did you use?

Btw I got 800 math 2 and us history, so if you’re retaking, feel free to ask any questions.

Though Stanford allows score choice for subject tests, since you’ve already sent them, there isn’t a ton you can do. Emailing your admissions officer would probably draw more attention to the scores you don’t want seen.

However, I don’t think these scores will ruin your chances, as they are not mandatory and aren’t weighted as heavily in the admissions process. At this point, you should focus on other parts of your app. And it’s not like you failed the subject tests - sure, they’re not ideal, but it’s not a disaster.

@ambitionsquared I didn’t study for the Literature test at all. I didn’t study for the US History test because I took the APUSH test without taking the class and got a 4, and I thought that math 2 would be similar to the math portion of the ACT. So the score is my fault and I am buying prep books and retaking US History and Math 2 in December so I can submit that to my RD schools, but Stanford will get my poor scores.

@sunshine232 So should I just let it be and work on other parts of my application? I’m already not expecting to get in to Stanford but I just felt like this completely ruined any hope I had.

I don’t know. I wouldn’t email the admissions officer, however, I would call the admissions office and ask if they can throw out those two scores you sent by mistake. It’s probably a receptionist answering the phone and a staff of helpers that are doing the paperwork type stuff of organizing the application files for the admissions officers to read. You never know, one might help you out.

The colleges will want to figure out which is more representative of you, the high literature or the lower (but not fatal) history and math scores. To do this, the schools you mentioned will consider your total application (recommendations, essay, GPA, course load, etc.), and if those are of high quality, they will consider your history and math scores to be statistical hiccups. Work on the rest of your package and you should be fine.

@ambitionsquared
How did you study for Math II? Is Barron’s enough? Is a graphing calculator necessary?

@BigIs thank you so much! I’m applying as a polisci/philosophy major so STEM is definitely not my strong suit, but I consistently score well in literature - oriented tests. 5 on AP Lang w/o taking the class, 790 lit score, 36 ACT English/reading composite. Hopefully that will be enough to make them ingnore the bad scores!