@singermom4 , He has taken the SAT twice and the ACT twice and the four scores are remarkably close. I think his ACT is better on a percentile basis, but pretty equivalent on the concordance tables. I am going to go out on a limb here and say this is an issue of IQ. He doesn’t have test anxiety or anything like that. He also doesn’t have a particular area of weakness. Similar scoring across all the topics. I spent $3500 on tutoring for my older son and the only material score increase was on writing. So I am not sold on the idea that the needle can be moved a whole lot. He is continuing to self study for the ACT so maybe he will bump to a 28? I feel like our best bet is to find good schools he can get into and be happy at and maybe he will get super lucky with Tulane. Not sounding good with that example of your son’s friend. Yikes.
I know this sounds terrible, but I sorta wonder if his high grades are in part because he is unusually charismatic. He is willing to redo sub par work and has little trouble persuading teachers to be flexible. So I think his test scores could possibly be a valid representation of his academic potential. Of course I wish he could have what he wants (Tulane), but also realize it’s a long shot.