<p>I am a rising senior....with dreams that are on the way to being shattered completely. I am not talking 98 average 2300 SAT score with a bunch of EC's that won't get me into my top choice school. </p>
<p>I am an AP student with a 95 unweighted average, who is so close to making it into the top 10% and so close to not ranking at all (school only ranks the top 10%). I am a decent student with great EC's and leadership roles who has a passion for research and writing. I am also a student who is waiting for her first SAT score report....and I know that my immense studying did NOT pay off. </p>
<p>My goal: I don't want my years of stress and hard work to not pay off...I want to wind up at a school where I will be very challenged by the material and my peers (not a place where the peers are competitive w/ each other though)...not a non competitive school where there is no drive to succeed. I feel like all of my work is going down the drain and that I stressed myself out for no reason. </p>
<p>Question- Say you have a VERY bad SAT your first time around for whatever reason, but you knew the material and you score very high your second time around, will colleges only be concerned with the discrepancy and not the high score? How do you explain that your bad score was not a result of not trying, but just not checking to make sure that the answer to 5 was put into the column for question 5 (just an example)?</p>
<p>I really need some real advice....nothing sugar coated, just straight and to the point. I need to know if my goals should be altered before I am disappointed come my senior year.</p>
<p>Most schools look at your highest scored SAT and ignore the rest -- some will take the highest individual scores from each sitting.</p>
<p>You rank is going to impact you in highly competitive schools -- and it will also depend on how many kids your schools sends to top schools.</p>
<p>Take a look at the book Colleges That Change Lives-- there are tons of schools out there where you will be challenged by your peers, the professors and the curriculum (most likely this also includes your flagship state university's honors program).</p>
<p>Your rank - I can't help you. You just have to work really hard first term next year to be in the top 10%.</p>
<p>As far as SAT's - they really, truly, only care about that highest score. Obviously, your test records won't be as impressive as someone who got a 2400 the first time around, but if you get a good score next time, your first bad score will not block any doors. I am not sugar-coating. This is the truth.</p>
<p>Colleges do not care that much about your first-time SAT score. Don't sweat over it. Your stats look very good actually. 98 average is equivalent to 3.92+ which is above average for most top schools. 2300 SAT too. Rank shouldn't be too much of a problem if you come from a very competitive school.</p>
<p>Your SAT score will probably be better than you think it is. And all most schools care about is your 'super score', the highest score in each section of all of your sittings.</p>