<p>i have a 3.96 w and a 4.06 unweighted with 6 honors classes one AP. i am a very hard working student but a horrible stabdardized test taker. i got a 480 reading 570 math on my sat. i took the act and liked it better but i haven't gotten my scores back. i wish to go into biology and go to medical school. my dilemma is that i don't want to downgrade the quality of the colleges im looking at just because of my sat scores. what should i do?</p>
<p>The good news is that there are many high quality colleges that are test optional. Google Fair Test and you should come up with the link to the list.</p>
<p>what schools were you looking at?</p>
<p>If you give a sense of the schools you are looking at–or the level of school-- I think that would be more helpful and people would be able to give you more feedback.</p>
<p>Going into this blindly, you have a few options:
- Your state school. A great option for a strong student with bad SATs. Your grades may be enough to get you in (particularly if you attend a good high school that your state school will be familiar with). You’ll need to bring those scores up in this case as well, but perhaps not as much with out of state schools. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>Letters of recommendedations, ECs, and essays that knock the socks off of adcom, as well as self-initiated interviews at EVERY school to which you apply. </p></li>
<li><p>Prep classes, practices tests, again and again. If you get your scores combined scores above 1100 (and you’re close to that) you’ll be in much better shape, an 1150 would be great and also not so far out of reach with practice. Sometimes it’s just luck, so I suggest taking a class then testing again if that is a possibility.</p></li>
<li><p>Med school requires, unfortunately, a standardized test to get in. You’ll find that while the MCAT isn’t just like the SAT, you’ll have the same hurdles to get over for that exam. I’m not saying don’t do it, just realize that this may be an opportunity to improve on your overall test taking skills which will help in the future. Also, if you’re interested in med school, the most important thing you can do in undergrad is keep that GPA up. Straight As in college will go a long way to boost your application to med school.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>thank you for all your suggestions. im loved bucknell lafayette elon dickinson and wake forest. im really good at test taking when it comes to things i can study for ex: an mcat but not sats since i can’t technically study how to do reading comprehension</p>
<p>For college admissions, your GPA is much more important than your ACT or SAT score, because it is the best predictor for success in college.</p>
<p>You need to talk with your guidance counselor about the discrepancy between your classroom grades and your SAT score. Two possible causes for this kind of discrepancy are anxiety, and previously un-identified processing disorders (most often things in the dyslexia range). If either of those are affecting your ability to do as well as you’d like to on standardized exams, you should find out now so that you can master the skills needed to work around them.</p>
<p>Doing well on a few AP exams or SAT subject tests may help show that you can do well on tests you can study for.</p>
<p>wake forest is test optional, so maybe. but bucknell and lafayette might be long shots with those sats. </p>
<p>your argument of not being able to study is invalid due to the math portion, it shouldnt be anything new. pick up an sat book and study, it’ll probably help.</p>
<p>Wow, when I was reading your situation you sounded very similiar to me! I had pretty good grades (3.8 GPA), mostly honors classes with 3 APs, but I had horrible SAT/ACT scores. I only took the SAT once and when I got my score back, I was so dissapointed. Then I turned towards the ACT in hopes that it would be better for me, took it twice, and still sucked. I learned that I was an awful standardized test taker … However, like everyone else has mentioned, there are still high quality educational schools out there who are test optional (Thank God)! On top of the other schools mentioned, check out College of the Holy Cross too. They are test optional, a good liberal arts school, and they have a great premed program along with a good science department. Both their premed program and biology major are very competitive to get into, but fortunately I got accepted into both and I’m going there this fall as a bio/premed student. There’s still hope [: </p>
<p>Yay for test optional schools!</p>
<p>Also, Washington & Jefferson, Muhlenberg, Juniata and Ursinus all in PA are good for pre med/sciences. They are all SAT optional too.</p>
<p>There is an up-to-date list of test optional schools at [The</a> National Center for Fair & Open Testing | FairTest](<a href=“http://www.fairtest.org%5DThe”>http://www.fairtest.org)</p>
<p>You won’t believe me when I tell you this, but I can guarantee you it’s true. Unless you go to some absolute no name college with 1200 students in rural kentucky, undergraduate prestige doesn’t matter whatsoever if you want to get into medical school.</p>
<p>That said, try to get into the best school you possibly can, but don’t put too much emphasis on rank/prestige when picking a school. Look for a place you know you can succeed in and a place you know you’ll enjoy going to. I have a friend who got a game design degree from the Art Institute of Chicago who was just accepted to UCLA medical school.</p>
<p>Don’t fall into the College Confidential trap of picking a college by rank :).</p>
<p>edit: Also, you should strongly consider retaking the SAT. Study hard and you can EASILY raise your score 300-400 points. Its a very easily coachable test. I got a 2250 on it through lots of hard work, and you can too. Feel free to message me if you have any questions about the best ways to study for the test :).</p>