I have an SAT score of 1390 (780 English, 610 math) and an ACT score of 33 (36 English, 35 reading, 33 science, 27 math). I have no intentions of majoring in fields relating to math, and my common app reflects that (I chose College of Arts and Sciences / Humanities in the individual schools’ applications). I’m applying to some kind of difficult schools to get into such as UVA and Boston U. Will they take into account the fact that I want to major in the liberal arts field when they read my SAT and ACT scores?
Yes.
They will, but it’s increasingly harmful to be too one-sided.
Have you any intention to apply to liberal arts colleges? In that case, even if you express greater interest in the humanities, they are absolutely looking for well-roundedness in general. 1390 is slightly low, but you still have time to get it up!
gl
Every selective school is looking for well-roundedness. The vast majority of schools require some STEM coursework, and all of them know that the majority of students change their majors at least once.
Well, they’ll notice. And there are humanities majors that do rely on math skills. We don’t know enough about you to guess whether you have enough strength in humanities and the relevant ECs for them to ignore the low math score. We don’t know your rigor or GPA, any AP scores, what yo offer in other respects. Those colleges are holistic. The whole picture matters. And snce they;re competitive, it matters what that competition offers.
You should I think just send your ACT, a 33 is better than 1390, that being said a 33 is on 75% of BU and UVA, do a double check on that, if that’s the case, I think your’e fine, as long as your stem courses in hs have some rigor.
It’s my impression that most selective schools are looking for well-rounded classes and individual “pointyness” is ok.
@marvin100 - I have a lot of respect for your insights even though we seem to disagree on this point. Thoughts?
@CHD2013 - thanks for the kind words. Basically, of course there are exceptions. But in general, the trend of the last 20-30 years has been clearly aimed towards STEM/Humanities balance at the most selective schools. What’s more, the exceptions tend to be extreme edge cases: the kid whose humanities side is weak will have to do something really impressive in STEM for top-20 schools’ adcoms to overlook that weakness.
We don’t know much about the OP (maybe he or she has some truly remarkable humanities accomplishments!), but in general, top schools are far, far less inclined than they were in the past to take very obviously one-sided/imbalanced applicants.