<p>Hi Parents, I need some advice. I'm a HS junior and am interested to go to college to major something that'll eventually leads to either law school or international relations/law/business. I don't need to make my finial decision until later. I need advice -</p>
<p>(1) which colleges are good for those? </p>
<p>(2) I actually am very interested in Princeton. My SAT is reasonable. (2320, not sure if I'll take it again) I've taken several APs and they're all good. I've taken SAT subject on US history. I plan to take SAT subject math II in June. MY ECs are decent. For the things I want to do in college, do I need a 3rd SAT subject test? I never visited Princeton. It's too far for me to go now. I may go next year. Should I email them (Princeton, and several others) and tell them that I'd like to apply and ask about the SAT subject tests, or does it sound ridiculously stupid to do so?
Or do you know which subject tests I should take?</p>
<p>I'd really appreciate some suggestions. Anything would be appreciated.</p>
<p>Go ahead and apply to Princeton, but understand that the chances of getting in are very low – not just for you, but for all applicants.</p>
<p>So it makes sense to put considerable effort into selecting the other colleges on your list, because it’s very likely that you will end up at one of them.</p>
<p>As for SAT Subject Tests, you need two to apply to Princeton. I see no reason to take more unless you are disappointed with your score on U.S. History or Math II, but others here may disagree.</p>
<p>You can look up subject test requirements on each college’s websites. For a while there were a couple that required three subject tests, but most only want two and many don’t need any if you took the ACT. It would be foolish to rely on us to tell you, it changes every year and it’s hard to keep up!</p>
<p>I have a son in IR. Any reasonably selective college will give you a good background for your interests. In fact in retrospect, my son says he probably would have enjoyed majoring in history more and had better grades and be better prepared for what he wants to do. (I don’t think he’s a big fan of political science theory.) </p>
<p>Schools that are known for IR: Johns Hopkins, Georgetown, Tufts, William and Mary, Brandeis, Macalaster, Claremenont McKenna, American (could be a safety with your scores you are likely to be offered merit money and the honors college).</p>
<p>My son also applied to Harvard, Brown and U of Chicago.</p>
For schools like this, do they care which three I take?
I’m pretty happy with my score in US history. I hope I do well in math. I’m trying minimize the number of tests I have to take. People tell me I should take a FL. :eek:</p>
<p>I would not take a foreign language at this point, unless you are fluent. You might want to take a foreign language test June of your senior year, since at many schools a score in the 600 range or so may exempt you from their language requirement. My recommendation is to get a copy of the big blue subject test book and see what you are likely to get the highest score in. If you are taking AP Bio now, that would probably be a test you would do well in. AP Physics B also aligns pretty well with the subject test. My IR son had US History (great score) and Biology (good enough score) and tried Math for his 3rd and didn’t like his score at all, so he went back later and took Literature, even though he’s never liked English classes much. His score was fine, though not as high as his CR score. In retrospect he should have taken the World History test when he took AP World History, I think he must have had some notion that two history tests was a bad idea. Generally no they don’t care which three you take except you can’t take two math tests and expect it to count as two tests. Both my kids thought as long as they were wasting a morning on subject tests they might as well take three at once. So younger son took both the E and M versions of the bio test, and got virtually the same score both times.</p>
<p>That may be the case for Georgetown, but the schools I am aware of that require subject tests want them for EA applicants as well. My son applied to Georgetown and sent the subject tests since he’d finished with them by spring of junior year.</p>
<p>I believe that the wording on the Georgetown site is something along the lines of, “if you apply EA we understand that you may not have completed all your subject tests…” Something along those lines. Sorry that I am a techno-moron and can’t link to the site and the actual wording.</p>
<p>Don’t know if ds will apply to Georgetown or not and don’t know if he would apply EA there, but he will have two Subject tests completed by the time he would apply if he did go the EA route. My understanding is that they defer everyone out of EA, so if that were to happen, I would want him to take a third. If he got accepted at that point, it wouldn’t be necessary to take a third one.</p>
<p>EA is not binding, if you can possibly get your application done you should always apply EA. If you get in you know you’ve got a great safety school in your pocket. You are right you won’t get rejected from Georgetown, because anyone they don’t accept just gets deferred to the regular round.</p>
<p>I think it’s easier to take subject tests spring/summer junior year when you’ve just finished a year’s worth of course work and are already studying for finals and APs which overlap with the subject tests. In the fall applications and any last minute visits will be keeping you very busy, not to mention that you really need to get the best possible grades first semester senior year.</p>
<p>I didn’t know people took SATs in their senior year. I thought it’d be too late by then. good to know!</p>
<p>Do you think I could email the admissions in the colleges to ask them if I have questions about subject SATs? Like how many they need, and what they need?</p>
<p>The October sitting is usually early enough for EA schools. You can ask the schools if they care about two history courses, my impression is that they really don’t care. Most engineering type kids will take a science and math, so I don’t see why the more humanities history types feel obliged to show how wonderfully well rounded they are!</p>
You are right you won’t get rejected from Georgetown, because anyone they don’t accept just gets deferred to the regular round.</p>