Higher Sat vs. extracurriculars?

Applying to College
1

<p>Hi, I am a rising senior and hope to major in math in Harvard, Princeton, MIT, or Uchicago.
I will be taking the sat tomorrow and expect to get around 2130-2170. 1st time i took it was in october and i got 1990.
I know that if i take some time to prepare for the sat over the summer, I can get around 2200-2260 in october. However, I dont want to spend extra time on sat preparation for the following reason: I started a state organization for high school musicians several months ago, and since we are getting more members over the summer I want to spend my time with the organization, which is my main club/extracurricular. At the same time, I dont want to find myself getting rejected because of standaradized test scores.</p>

<p>My question is: should i spend my time preparing for sat to raise it from 21150 to maybe 2230, or should i concetrate on my organization?</p>

<p>Also, take into account that that I came to the US in freshmen year, so English is my 3rd langauge after hebrew and russian, if that affects the answer to my question. If you need any additional info to answer the question, ask anything you need. Thx! :)</p>

2

<p>You’re greatly overestimating the time it takes to study. Is there really nowhere in your entire summer that you can space out 15 to 20 hours for studying? Focus on reading a lot in your spare time, show your non-english strengths with SAT IIs, and hope for the best come october.</p>

3

<p>It’s not one or the other. For a realistic chance at HYP, you’ll need high SATs (even 2200 isn’t particularly impressive) and ECs like the one you started.</p>

4

<p>You honestly do both. You can find little times throughout the summer to study.</p>

5

<p>I had a job last summer and managed to still study for the SATs and get above a 2250. You can still do both; you don’t need to spend 8 hours a day studying, only about 1-2 hours worth of studying per week and more as you get closer to the test date (which is not until the middle of October).</p>