<p>Thank you all for great advice. Especially BIG thank you goes to IJustDrive.
Because of the PM you left me I called several schools this am, and what an eye opener.
I am posting this as it might become helpful to others one day.</p>
<p>As a reminder, S took SAT Math II in June after finishing his 8th grade. Got a perfect score so we petitioned CB to keep it on his record. Now, I knew from CC that scores could not be older that 4 years but never thought that the fact he took it after 8th grade could be a problem, if anything I thought it might be a bonus So I called Harvard this am. and was told by the admission officer that they only consider scores that are less than 3 years old so yes, for H he will need to retake it. Princeton said
they will consider it - no problem. Still waiting to hear back from Yale. And about to call MIT, although according to IJustDrive MIT won’t have a problem with that.</p>
<p>I have been on CC for almost 5 years now, have gotten great advice when S was ready to take that test after pre-calc, but not even one person pointed out to me that it might be too early for some colleges to consider it for admission to an undergrad program.
You learn new things every day!</p>
<p>Rules are rules, but I agree that it is stupid. This is probably because of those applying not directly after HS , I bet they don’t have too many 14 year old with SAT Subject scores ;-)</p>
<p>Kelowna – If he’s planning on re-taking Math II, make sure that he actually reviews for it. Lots of kids find that they don’t remember a lot of the nit-picky trig and geometry stuff on the SAT II once they’ve had higher-level math courses. If he’s going to do it, he needs to take it seriously. (And he’ll do great!)</p>
<p>One reasonable strategy might be the following (and it gets around the rules of colleges that don’t allow Score Choice):</p>
<ol>
<li><p>For those schools that he plans to apply to that will accept his old Math II score and do not want a science test, send his existing scores right now. That way, those schools will see the high scores in U.S. History and Math II, but they won’t see any future scores unless he decides later to send them.</p></li>
<li><p>Take a science test in June and then send all scores to those colleges that require a science test (such as MIT). He may want to wait until he receives the score to decide whether to send scores again to the schools in #1 (if the science test score is significantly lower than the other two, he might not want them to see it).</p></li>
<li><p>Take the Math II test over in the fall. Then send scores only to those colleges that insist on a new Math II score. This covers him in case the new score is lower than the old one. The other colleges (such as MIT) will never see the new score.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Caltech also requires scores from past 3 years. My son sounds similar to yours. He took Physics SAT II in 8th grade along with math II in 8th grade. He got 800 on physics and 760 on math. He retook the Math sat II in soph. or jr. year to get his 800, but kept the physics. All was well until he encountered Caltech. (He was not interested in Harvard) So, he had to retake the Physics SAT II this past January. What a pain to have to spend more money. All other schools on his list were ok with 8th grade scores.</p>
<p>In the end he was admitted to Princeton with:</p>
<p>2320 (800M, 790CR, 730W)
800 Math II
800 Physics
730 Literature</p>
<p>And we’re homeschoolers, so I was a little worried he didn’t have enough SAT II tests but it worked out ok.</p>
<p>How heavily do top colleges weight SAT Subject Test scores, compared to other parts of the application? I applied to UPenn with 2210 SAT I and:
800 Math 2
800 Chemistry
800 US History
800 Latin
Will these scores overshadow my relatively low SAT I?</p>
<p>quesadilla, there’s no way to know. I’ve never heard an admissions officer address this issue. I do know my older son had three 800s in one sitting on subject tests and a 2250 and was rejected by MIT, Stanford and Caltech, and waitlisted at Harvey Mudd. However I think it is much, much more likely that they were underwhelmed by his essays or didn’t need another computer nerd. He did get into Harvard, Carnegie Mellon SCS and his safeties. U Penn has an acceptance rate of less than 10% in the regular admissions - your chances are low. But I tend to believe admissions officers that say that once you reach a certain threshold (2100 or so) the exact scores don’t really matter much - it’s all the holistic parts of the application that will really make the difference. And a lot of decisions get made by institutional needs and desires and not by your worthiness. It’s pretty unpredictable.</p>
<p>It depends. For homeschoolers, more subjects tests are helpful.</p>
<p>I think your test scores are great and wouldn’t be the deal breaker. As mathmom says, after a certain level of score, there are other things schools look for to accept/reject applicants.</p>
<p>We found a couple of universities use the SAT subject scores for foreign language waivers, credit and placement. Might be worth the extra hour on a Saturday!</p>
<p>Just called Caltech and was told that they do not have a three year policy and will consider an early score. The lady on the phone went to double check with someone else when I was like “really? are you sure?”</p>
<p>What other schools ask specifically for MATH II ?</p>
<p>I think I am the only parent on CC who does not know what subject tests the worm took, or his scores. I do know SAT and PSAT and FCAT, becuase they came by snail mail. I was amazed to see that he graduted college with honors. I have no idea of his grad school grades, but at least I now know his courses.</p>
<p>That is truly interesting since my son has emails from admissions telling him, “Sorry, you need to retake your 8th grade test”. This was back in December. Maybe they’ve changed their policy since then…</p>
<p>This (or AP test in the language) is likely a common way for native or heritage speakers whose language skills are already above the highest level high school language course to “prove” their language skills for colleges that otherwise want to see high school foreign language on the transcript.</p>
<p>^^
If a student has a foreign language requirement for their College major, some schools such as Harvard, Tufts, Umass Amherst (we looked at just a few) will let a student satisfy the COLLEGE level requirement with an SAT II score (usually 700+). Of course, most schools have foreign language placement exams that are given during summer orientation …but the SAT II is a nice way to ensure a pass (taken when the student is ready for it). For example, Latin students often take the test at the end of 11th grade when grammatical/vocab studies are at a peak…as AP Latin in the senior year is on Vergil. </p>
<p>While waiting to pick up D last June at an SAT testing site, I met a parent of an entering Tufts frosh. The student was taking the French SAT II to avoid having to sit through beginner & intermediate French again (he didn’t take AP French…which, if passed, would also satisfy the requirement).</p>
So I called Harvard this am. and was told by the admission officer that they only consider scores that are less than 3 years old so yes, for H he will need to retake it. Princeton said