How colleges look at SAT scores

Test Preparation
1

<p>It was always my impression that admissions officer either looked at your best SAT scores from each section, or that they looked at your best single sitting.</p>

<p>However, I've seen some people indicating that colleges will consider all of your SAT scores from each time you have taken the test.</p>

<p>Although, I'm not too sure about the second idea, because each admissions web site I've gone to that says they want all SAT scores also says they only consider the best scores.</p>

<p>So my question is, do any colleges actually take into account all your SAT scores? Or do they all just look at your best score from each section? (This does not include colleges who use the best single sitting).</p>

2

<p>They look at your best score from each section.</p>

3

<p>Here’s a pretty comprehensive list of how colleges look at SAT scores</p>

<p><a href=“http://professionals.collegeboard.com/profdownload/sat-score-use-practices-list.pdf[/url]”>Higher Education Professionals | College Board;

4

<p>Jersey-</p>

<p>I’ve seen this list before, and that is kinda what got me confused. I’m interested in Georgetown and Stanford, and on the link you gave, it says both of them consider all scores. Yet on their web sites, they both say they only look at your best score from each section.</p>

<p>I’m inclined to believe it’s the latter, because I don’t think any college really wants to focus on how poorly you can perform at times.</p>

<p>By the way, I ask this question because my writing score dropped 80 points on the latest SAT (760 to 680). Going in to the second test, I thought all colleges superscored, so I only focused on math while I was prepping. Thus, my writing score fell and I’m wanting to know if this will be a detriment in any way. Also, I’m aware Georgetown doesn’t focus on writing, it’s more of a concern for my chances at Stanford.</p>

5

<p>Directly from Stanford’s website

and

Stanford requires that you send all of your scores. It will primarily focus on your superscore (highest sections from all sittings), but that does not mean that your other scores are ignored. They will most likely consider how many times you’ve taken the test, how much of a disparity there is between your scores etc.</p>