Do SAT Scores Affect Transfers

<p>My DS has always planned to attend a local cc then transfer to a local 4-year college so he can have an A.S., at least one B.S., and minimal debt. NYS cc’s don’t require SAT scores for freshmen, but 4-year schools do. Do they consider SAT scores when deciding which students to accept as transfers? My DS has taken the SAT a couple times (he’s a senior) and his best scores are 600CR, 500M, and 600WR. He’s studying the math and intends to take it again, but I’m wondering where he might stand if his scores don’t improve. I believe they will (he’s using the BB and online CB program, reviewing his answers, etc.). He’s putting in the effort, but he has a lot to make up. We home school, and the year he started high school was the final year of my mom’s life. We worked hard, but I picked up a math book that was a Math A book. I was an honors student, so I’d never heard of a subject split into two years. By the time I realized what kind of book it was, we were pretty far into the year. Not surprisingly, that’s the subject tripping him up on the math section. He is a smart kid and I expect he’ll do very well in cc. Will that be enough to balance less than stellar SAT scores when he transfers? The answer will probably be more important for my DD, a HS freshman who has dyslexia, dysgraphia, and dyscalculia and will be the first class who gets to take the new and improved SAT. I bought a BB for her so we can practice together and she can get used to the format, but I worry she’ll be in the same situation as my son. If a college’s average CR and Math score for freshmen is 1200, will a transfer with good grades but a lower SAT score be considered?</p>

<p>It depends on the university. But even if the SAT is required for junior transfers, it will have far less importance in admission than it does for freshmen at the same school. The coursework and GPA in college will be the dominant factor, especially for a local public school that may see a lot of transfers from that CC. Just focus on getting high grades in CC, and this will very likely work out for the best.</p>

<p>I have a kid who transferred for her junior year in college, and only one college requested her SAT scores - one of the public schools. It does depend on the college but most don’t seem to require it, since your abilities as demonstrated in college are far more important.</p>

<p>Hanna is right. SAT is less important the farther you get from HS and high grades in CC is the best thing to focus on. As far as considering SATs, you can check the Common Data Set for the schools in which your S is interested, section D. For instance here is Bing’s <a href=“Office of Institutional Research - Office of Institutional Research | Binghamton University”>Office of Institutional Research - Office of Institutional Research | Binghamton University; It shows SATs are sometimes needed. Usually that means if a student transfers in with less than two years of college classes.</p>

<p>As an example, Stony Brook requires high school records and SAT scores for transfer applicants who have completed fewer than 24 credits of college courses by the time of application.
<a href=“http://www.stonybrook.edu/ugadmissions/applying/trans_procedures.shtml”>http://www.stonybrook.edu/ugadmissions/applying/trans_procedures.shtml&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>I’ve read the common data sets and several said they require high school records and SAT scores from some transfers. It didn’t occur to me they might mean people who hadn’t finished their cc program. I’ll encourage him to keep studying and graduate from the cc before transferring. Thanks.</p>

<p>Note that 24 credits is less than the usual 30-32 that one would have after completing two semesters of full course loads (i.e. frosh year). This means that for students in their sophomore years applying to transfer as juniors, high school records and SAT scores are not needed by Stony Brook, while students in their frosh years applying to transfer as sophomores do need to submit high school records and SAT scores (presumably because they do not have enough of a college record).</p>

<p>However, different schools may have different policies, although even schools that require high school records and SAT scores for junior transfers consider them less relevant than college records.</p>

<p>I will check the credit requirements for transfers at the schools he’s interested in. The program he wants to take at our local cc runs about 17 credits/semester. I think 3 semesters are 17 credits and the 4th is 16. SUNYs have transfer agreements, so as long as he stays in the SUNY system, his credits will transfer and he should enter the 4-year college as a junior. If he decides to apply to a non-SUNY, I suppose his status would depend on how many transfer credits they accept.</p>