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Princeton viewbook:
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<p>So the viewbook confirms that your posting (#17) contained wrong information --- in particular, that it was inaccurate to represent as authoritative the statement from Princeton that "for the SAT Subject Tests, we look at your three highest subjects"?</p>
<p>The adcom said that Caltech's policy is to consider all scores, not only the highest (but giving those the most weight). He gave several examples, without claiming they were an exhaustive list of past experience or future possibilities, where adverse inferences would be drawn from the presence of lower (non-highest) scores on the SAT report. His SAT-II example was not even of the worst case, but of an increasing progression of scores (610-640-700 on the Physics test), and he said that such a score pattern would be considered worse than a single score of 700, as there is less of a possibility that it came from a "real" ability level of 750. So while in many/most cases Caltech opts to consider the highest scores as authoritative, your implications about Caltech in this thread are quite wrong. </p>
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Earlier in the same thread (which I opened to raise this question) he had said, "The summary sheet in every folder does list all scores (which the CB reports). Usually I just glanced at all of them and took the best ones as authoritative."
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<p>So what happened when it wasn't "usually", and how does that square with your implication in post #16, that Caltech simply takes highest scores as authoritative?</p>
<p>My suggestion: Could you just take the ACTs? I know that it would be a waste of your perfectly good SAT score, but some (most that I've looked in to) require either the SAT and 2-3 SAT subject tests, or JUST THE ACT!!! That's why I'm taking the ACT. Although the material is slightly more challenging and the time restrictions are a b****, I find it to be more user-friendly because it's not worded in a way that will make you pull your hair out. They also give you the option of which score(s) you want to send into college. So my suggestion would be to think about taking the ACT instead, if the colleges you're interested in accept it that is. :) Good luck!</p>
<p>As I have written before, </p>
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I can't help people who have an idee fixe about what THEY think [a particular college] admission office does
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<p>Everyone else can read the postings of the admission offices and figure out for themselves what those postings say. It's hilarious to have such an active fan club, but I see little point in debating fine points of English grammar.</p>
<p>Hi all. I'm a little late to the party, but I think there's not much of a disagreement here.</p>
<p>In the vast majority of "normal" cases, where there is no evidence of some kind of trickery or other problem, the highest score is essentially the only one considered. It is the one shown in the "summary listing" which forms the basis for committee discussions. In committee, it would be rare to look at it against the backdrop of other scores, which are elsewhere in the folder. Occasionally, while reading a folder (before committee meetings), an unusual pattern, or one that confirms some negative suspicion, will be noted, and in that case we would write it up in the case summary so that it would be discussed. </p>
<p>Tokenadult is right that in the majority of cases, the highest score is all that counts. But of course it is not ALWAYS the case. In about 10% of cases I recall reading, the other scores did make a difference in that they clarified a trend or caused us to wonder about something. </p>
<p>For what it's worth, I don't mind tokenadult quoting me. If there is ever a dispute about what I mean, I can always be contacted by private message. Oh, and by the way, I don't claim that this is representative of all schools or most schools or anything. This is just the Caltech process as I remember it in about 05-06.</p>
<p>They send the last six SAT Subject Test SITTINGS. So you have to sit it six more times (not just take six more tests) to erase your old scores.</p>