I need advice from wise parents here. I am a white girl applying to Caltech and MIT with 2300 on SAT and 800 on Math 2, 15 APs by graduation all with 5 and 4 on the exams. UW GPA 3.93, WGPA 4.88. Ranked 4/300 at highly competitive school. My EC is above average and are a mix between research at well-known summer program, sport and speech and debate. Here is the dilemma. I just got 710 on my SAT 2 Biology test. I know that applying EA will give me small edge. Should I take a risk and apply with my biology score earlier or take November SAT and apply RD?
That score is fine for MIT. I expect the same is true for CalTech. So don’t worry about that. At the same time applying EA at MIT will probably make no difference in your chances. If you are ready to apply EA, then you should definitely do that though. Good luck!
Thank you @GrudeMonk I was under impression that anything under 750 is too low, especially for those two schools. I am planning to retake it in November for MIT and the rest of my RD schools, but it is too late for Caltech EA.
According to the MIT common data set, 25% of the freshmen were 740 or below on SAT math so I don’t think “anything under 750 is too low.”
MIT is only going to look at your SAT 2 test scores to help determine if you can successfully do the work there. People in admissions there explicitly state that they are looking for scores of 700 and above to help determine that. It’s everything else in your application that will get you admitted, and your 710 will be looked at as a successful score only.
Really truly, if you don’t get into MIT or CalTech it will not be b/c of a 710 on your SATII in Bio.
I wouldn’t hold off. Apply early if you are ready. If you take other tests and do better, you may be able to send them also. (I don’t know, but you may want to check).
I do not think there would be any risk for you involved in applying early to either school–certainly not based on the Bio score. MIT explicitly says that any score that starts with “7” is fine.
I don’t think that Caltech has exactly that view. However, I am virtually certain that Caltech thinks of high-school biology as heavily fact based, and less conceptual than physics or math. So my guess is that Caltech will merely think that you weren’t exposed to all the fact base that was covered on the Bio test–or you might have forgotten part of the fact base, but that is not a real problem. Your Math 2 and SAT I scores are all you need to prove your capability score-wise. I wouldn’t bother with the November SAT. (On the other hand, you might look over the SAT questions in physics and chemistry between now and next September–no need to take an official test.)
Thank you everyone! I think I will be applying EA to both schools.