<p>My daughter is a sophomore and starting the early phases of a college search. She has some interest in playing her sport in college particularly if it can get her some admission or financial advantage. She is a strong student and is targeting low Division I or high Division III athletically but definitely wants strong academics. She did take the PSAT as a sophomore and will take again as a junior in October, but I was wondering if there was any advantage to her taking the SAT in June of this year? She has emailed some coaches of interest and has had some correspondence with Division III coaches but only the standard allowable replies from Division I coaches. Would it be a good idea to have an idea of her SAT range so the coaches will know early that she is (hopefully) a good fit for their school? or can her PSAT scores be used for that same purpose?</p>
<p>I don’t see any advantage. If she already has a high PSAT score as a Soph, I’d concentrate of the PSAT. A good sore this Fall could win her a scholarship. If she is not trending high on the PSAT, that’s just another reason not to take the SAT.</p>
<p>One thing to consider - D took SAT in June of Soph year just to get a baseline. Then she did the SAT tutoring over the summer. The tutor had a baseline to work with and knew which areas she needed to focus on more - plus it is easier to do SAT prep when not dealing with homework, practice, school activities, etc as you would during the school year. Then she took the SAT again in Oct of her junior year. Score went up 300 points - so well worth the effort to prep over the summer. Added bonus - she took the PSAT the following week and scored really well - not sure what the cut offs will be yet for 2014 but guidance counselor thought she would qualify for NMSF. So if she is a good student who tests well - may be something to consider… Timing worked great for D so I try to pass that along.</p>
<p>Do not rush it. A poor score never goes away and you can help her prep over the summer by taking practice tests to identify areas to work on. It is unlikely that an early SAT score, even if it is good, will do much to influence coaches.</p>
<p>I agree with catsmeow in that the prospective athlete should take the test as early as he/she is ready. </p>
<p>The prospective athlete is different from a traditional non-athlete student in that the test prep courses take up valuable weekends - either during season or during equally important club competition. The junior year gets very hectic: course loads get harder, visits are made to prospective colleges, prep courses consume months, athletics are peaking recruiting wise. Anything to spread out this load should be done - assuming that the student is prepared for these standardized tests.</p>
<p>Moreover, if you are thinking of an Ivy or some other schools, SAT IIs will be required. Add onto that, the AP tests in May, and the junior year can seem like one weekend after another of testing and test prep.</p>
<p>Look at it this way, assume two tries each for the SAT and ACT; one weekend for the SAT II, and a month of test prep for each. Not much time to recover if something goes wrong. Especially if you want all testing to be done by the end of junior year - which makes recruiting by an Ivy easier.</p>
<p>But only if he/she is ready at the end of sophomore year. In a perfect world, the SAT/ACT would be done by October junior year.</p>
<p>I don’t see any advantage to taking it this June, but really hard study this summer for PSAT/SAT is a good idea. If your child is getting high scores on practice tests, then take SAT early jr. year. The sooner a good SAT score is posted, the sooner the athlete is admissible in the eyes of the coach, the longer you stay on their radar screen. The schools you’re talking about want students who can play, not just athletes who can get by academically.</p>
<p>Our student was a top recruit and had tons of APs etc…and took the SAT in Jan of Jr yr.
Looking back, there was no reason to do that, as March would have been fine - perhaps better. Though the ACT turned out to be a better format/score.</p>
<p>Point is–it might be a bit sport dependent. Our student was only going to be faxing the transcripts/scores to hyp etc after May of Jr yr and would only be getting calls starting July 1…<br>
a soph score wouldn’t have helped.</p>
<p>However a friend’s dd is a soccer recruit and verballed this yr–and needed some of those things earlier. </p>
<p>Don’t rush it… I dont see a benefit of doing anything soph yr and those scores will show up for schools that require ALL scores— so unless like CatsMeow your student will be tutoring/fixing weak section…no reason to add the stress.</p>
<p>Our student took the SAT 1x and the ACT2x…</p>
<p>Different tests and worth trying both to see which is a better format.</p>
<p>Thank you to all for the replies…I guess I was thinking more in terms of having a score in hand already. I’m not sure that the summer would be a better time for her to take a prep class as her sport is a fall one and the summer is already crazy with her club team activities and practices as well as all the “optional” training and leagues for her school team, plus trying to fit some hours in at her summer job. </p>
<p>I know that taking a prep course in the fall would be out of the question which would leave all the SAT taking and prep to the spring and many juniors in her sport have already verbally committed at this point. I was thinking that at some of the more academic schools the SAT would be more important to have but perhaps that is required at all schools before a verbal committment. I don’t really know the process and perhaps as some have suggested it is sport specific.</p>
<p>I also didn’t realize that some schools may require you to report ALL scores…so that info is helpful to know and I can see why that might be a downside to taking the SAT as a soph!</p>
<p>Thanks again and if anyone has other input it would be much appreciated!</p>
<p>Even schools which require all scores to be submitted claim to look at only the best scores - even superscoring some. For the D1 schools (D3s don’t have NLIs or Likely Letters), a recruited athlete only has to clear the bar (e.g., get whatever score that school requires of its athletes), and are not competing with the general application population. The coach will be able to tell you where the bar rests.</p>
<p>For D3s, search the threads - it seems that D3 recruiting at top academic schools (e.g., Haverford) is fraught with much more uncertainty to the extent that the athletes are competing with the general application population.</p>
<p>My D - a hookless non-athlete - took the ACT as a soph. The result served as a baseline for her; ironically, she took it two more times and only increased her score one point. The schools did not hold the multiple testing against her. And, if it was not held against an applicant the schools are looking for a reason to reject, I don’t believe it would work to the detriment of an appicant a school is looking for a reason to admit.</p>
<p>D’s took copies of her PSAT score report to give to coaches on any unofficial visits she did in sophomore and early junior year. The coaches accepted them as an excellent indicator she would be in their score range for recruiting. </p>
<p>However, I don’t see a problem with your Dr taking the SAT test this early if she has had the necessary math already–algebra 1 and 2 and geometry. But make sure she does at least one or two practice tests at home first. My athlete D ended up taking the SAT only once after very minimal prep, in the fall of junior year. She scored well enough such that she didn’t need to take it again. That was great because then she could focus on AP tests and SAT II’s.</p>