<p>SAT: 2100 (590 CR, 800 M, 710 W)
SAT II: Chemistry 790 Math I 750 Physics 730
AP classes taken: AP Chemistry (5), AP Music Theory (4); going to take AP Bio, AP Physics B, AP Economics (Macro and Micro)</p>
<p>Top 10% of class at a very good Public HS (460 students)
Course load is difficult but not impossible (mostly honors and APs)
Part of National Honor Society, French Honor Society, Science Honor Society
Member of Key Club and French Club
Varsity Cross Country team
Student Tutor
Have been playing recreation baseball for 10+ years and won Sportsmanship Award</p>
<p>I reside in New Jersey, but I have a dual citizenship (US, Canada) </p>
<p>It’s hard to say without knowing how your recommendations will be and how good your essay is. Your SAT and GPA are strong (although could use more rigor…) so I’d say Tufts at least is definitely attainable. Have you considered ED? Low reaches for you like NYU and Brandies would be good as well. If you don’t need to compare FA I’d definitely consider ED 1 and maybe ED 2 to increase your chances. BC, Wisconsin Madison, etc are reaches but still close to match…</p>
<p>Your critical reading score is going to well below the 25th percentile at these schools so you need to be intelligent about where you apply. Somewhere that could be consider a low reach for someone with a 2100 on their SAT is not a low reach for someone with a 590 in a section. Schools like NYU, Brandeis, Rochester, etc. would be reaches for you. I’d say schools ranked from 20-40 could be realistic reaches for you.</p>
<p>You might want to give the SAT one more try and attempt to break 600 on CR. Otherwise, I’d say that schools in the range of John Hopkins, Boston College, Tufts, CMU, UMichigan are reasonable reaches for you.</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses. I did not think that schools like Georgetown, CMU, or Tufts were even in my range of reach schools.</p>
<p>URhodeIsland, I really wanted to apply ED to Johns Hopkins because based on statistics I think that I could get in, but I don’t think I can afford a school like that. My parents want to send me to study in Canada because college is much more affordable so I am looking at McGill and University of Toronto.</p>
<p>sungoose…do you have any suggestions of possible reach schools with good science/engineering programs that you think are possible for me to get into?</p>
<p>For anybody: Do you think that breaking 600 will really make a huge difference going forward with applying? My dilemma is that I really want to focus on my grades in senior year to help my GPA and prove that I can excel in difficult courses, but I don’t know if it is worth investing a lot of time into preparing for the SAT yet again when I only really expect about a 30 point increase or so.</p>
<p>I think that for the upper level schools, breaking 600 in CR would help. I would just study for that section of the SAT because virtually all schools superscore so your strong M and W scores would count.</p>
<p>You should look into Carnegie Mellon and RPI because while your reading section SAT is on the lower side, their averages for reading and writing are significantly lower than the math section. Your ECs look good and the rest of your app should be fine. I also suggest not sending your physics subject test because you did much better on the other two. 730 on physics is only the 72nd percentile but you’re in the 93rd and 95th percentile for your other two.</p>
<p>Most colleges superscore and you just give your highest score from each section.</p>
<p>For the SAT II: you have to look at the percentiles because each test is curved differently. A 730 physics score in the 72nd percentile doesn’t look great to engineering schools but your other two tests will look great, so it’s fine! If you didn’t have two other great scores, it would be fine to send, but your other scores are muh better.</p>
<p>Ok thanks! I need to check which schools require multiple science subject tests first. I believe the program that I’d like to do at McGill requires one math and two science SAT IIs.</p>
<p>That brings up another question…should I take the SAT again to increase my CR score, or should I take the physics SAT II again. When I took the physics SAT II I had not been finished with the curriculum at that point. In fact I took the physics SAT II before learning anything about circuits.</p>
<p>Clearly the students taking the physics test are higher quality and know they’ll do well, but those are the students you’ll be competing with. It’s not necessary to send that score when you’re in a much higher percentile for your other two subject tests. It might not hurt, but it probably won’t help much.</p>
<p>If you get your CR up to 620, that would be better than eighty-something percent of people, so just try retaking the SAT if possible.</p>
<p>Not only are the students who take the physics test stronger, but subject tests themselves are extremely self-selecting compared to the SAT. The schools where this score would influence his application in a negative way could be counted on one hand.</p>
<p>OP’s 590 score, however, is far, far below even the 25th percentile at schools he could legitimately consider reaches.</p>
<p>Alright, I think that I will just suck it up and take one more SAT exam. I will only prepare for the CR section though because I am happy with my other two scores.</p>
<p>As for the physics SAT II score I’m not sure what I will do yet. That’ll be something that I decide as I get closer to choosing where exactly I will be applying.</p>
<p>If you are going to take the SAT again, and prepping for the CR, go to the SAT/ACT section and open the SAT-preparation subforum. There are a couple of pinned threads to read that will give you systematic prep tips. Hopefully you can raise the score significantly, which to me means 100 pts.</p>
<p>I’ll definitely check that out. I would be thrilled if I could raise my score by 100 points. Do you think that it’s possible with a lot of hard work?</p>