Please tell me your opinion of whether both subject test scores should be sent:
Lit: 760
US History: 680
Can a score below 700 hurt an applicant, or would it (perhaps) just not help an applicant?
Thanks for your feedback.
Where is the applicant applying to?
Scores would be sent to Northwestern, Tufts, Emory, Lehigh, and WashU.
Is there another subject test to be taken? If not some schools require 2 subject tests.
Yes, but apparently not until fall so they are not yet sure how the test will go and want to get a sense for whether these two tests would be okay to send or if it’s truly a bad idea to send the second one.
I’m so surprised that no one has been through this on CC - it seems like most kids here apply to schools that require these tests!
Not sure, common CC knowledge is not to send below 700. But one of my kids sent very early(sophomore) to some schools with her Chemistry lower than 700, maybe 690 because she took Honors Chemistry and the teacher was not great. I used that as free opportunity to send her free SAT scores. The following schools were admitted based on that low scores, Michigan, USC, Purdue, Fordham. So decide if these schools are good enough for your kid.
Thanks @DrGoogle - although, do those school actually look at subject tests? I don’t know about USC, but I didn’t think the other ones even had them on the “considered” list.
My inclination would be not to send and if a school requires two tests retest or take something else to see if she can get a better score. It’s not a terrible score, but it’s not going to be a big plus either. I doubt it would hurt her. I think it’s hard to do better than a May or June score since the material is not going to be fresh in your mind for anything else.
Thanks @mathmom
Do you get a choice? the schools that require “all” be sent, does that mean all subjects too? S took a bio test at 13…bad idea.
Post #6, I don’t know and maybe that’s why it didn’t matter. Only very few selective schools consider subject tests, even the UCs don’t require them, maybe encouraged for some majors.
I think Penn requires all to be sent including subject tests.
I think the ones I’ve listed above that student is considering say that they “encourage” them but they are not “required” if that makes any difference. @HRSMom - all tests don’t have to be sent unless the school itself requires it. None of the schools student is considering require that - I think that is mostly an Ivy thing.
Should I send in a 700?
^Yes, 700 isn’t going to hurt you anywhere.
It depends on the school, for example MIT 25 th percentile for science subject test is 720, your odds will be a lot smaller when you are below 720. Learn as much as you can about the schools that you are interested in, dig deeper, read the common data sets, etc…
This does not logically follow. Do you have information that shows that MIT highly weights the science subject test in its admissions decisions? Only if you know that would be able to say that the student’s odds would be “a lot” smaller.
My D15 had a similar dilemma last year regarding which subject tests to send. Her best scores by the end of junior year were 750 USHist and 690 Bio (from Soph year). She was applying to very selective LACs and none required them since she was submitting ACT with writing. However, we felt that submitting good scores could only help and give Adcoms additional data points to support her strong GPA. Honestly with the selectivity of the schools you mentioned I would be hesitant to send a 680 USHist if it is not required (at least for Gtown, Tufts, WashU, NWestern). For sure, however, send the lit score.
D wound up taking subject tests again in the early fall and scored 700+ on math1. Her other scores were good but not as high (in math2 and lit). she wound up submitting the USHist and the math1 scores and was accepted to her early decision school. If she had submitted the 690 Bio along with the other two scores I don’t think it would have hurt her, but since she had two scores in the 700+ range it didn’t seem worth it to send.
The policy of the school matters. If you are sending scores to bolster the application and they don’t require or recommend, I would only submit 700+ scores. Also, I would highly encourage taking subject tests again in the fall… if s/he can retake US Hist great; if s/he would rather take another test pick from language, science, and/or either math.
Maria, that’s what MIT reports their ranges, what evidence do you need? Why do people cite SAT scores for? The odds are a lot smaller because it’s in the bottom 25th percentile. It’s not rocket science is it?
We don’t know the relative weight MIT gives to subject test scores vs. other factors.
We don’t know, for example, whether if the student was 75th percentile or above in all other respects, MIT would say “This low science subject test score is a dealbreaker” or whether they would say “This low science subject test score probably reflects the lousy teaching of physics at the applicant’s high school, something we’ve seen before in applicants from this high school, and shouldn’t detract from the overall quality of his application.”
Of course nobody knows and I didn’t say MIT gives more weight to subject test. This is just one small aspect of the application that’s why I said odds. But the fact that MIT keeps track and publishes the range gives the student an insight into their application pool regarding SAT subject test.