<p>There is a claim here that FORMER Harvard admission officer (he is now a private admission consultant) Chuck Hughes claims that it might be disadvantageous to take the SAT I more than three times. That squares with my recollection of what he wrote in his book, which I have read, but that also may not be current information. Or the effect size may be very small, and confined to the case of taking the test more than five times. Whatever Hughes thought when he was an admission officer, this thread includes recent examples of five-time SAT-takers who were admitted to Harvard. Anyway, there is no documentation anywhere in this thread for a claim that ANY admission officer has that view of taking the SAT I twice (or three times) as contrasted with taking it once. Taking the SAT I twice or three times is quite routine in the application pool to the most selective colleges in the United States. </p>
<p>There is another author of a kiss-and-tell college admission book, also one I have read, who appears to have the same opinion Hughes expressed. She has not worked in a college admission office for more than a decade, and has never worked in Harvard's. She also makes the rather bizarre suggestion that applicants should write their applications on paper (NEVER electronically) and only in her specified color of ink. I rather doubt that Harvard admission officers care about that at all. My understanding from press reports about how her clients fared in a recent admission season is that none were admitted to Harvard. Readers of this thread who would like to look at some interesting books about college admission may find a bibliography</a> of college admission books a helpful guide. </p>
<p>
[quote=Ben Golub, a student member of the Caltech admission committee]
The official policy is that the best score is the one that counts most. </p>
<p>. . . . Usually I just glanced at all of them and took the best ones as authoritative.
[/quote]
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<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showpost.php?p=3543930&postcount=3%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showpost.php?p=3543930&postcount=3</a> </p>
<p>
[quote=Matt McGann, MIT '00, Associate Director MIT Admissions Office]
People make a big deal about test scores. No one seems to believe me when I tell them that when I'm reading an application, I just glance at the test scores to get a sense of them before moving on to the more important parts of the application -- that is, who you are.
[/quote]
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<p>That was from a thread </p>
<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=295954%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=295954</a> </p>
<p>in which I asked about submitting more than one SAT I score in an undergraduate application. </p>
<p>I would respectfully suggest that if a student is puzzled</a> about the SAT I he just took, and he finds out his scores may have some room for improvement, he shouldn't be afraid to take the SAT I once more, or twice more. Harvard admission officers understand that high school students grow in their scholastic aptitude as they progress through high school, and they will take the highest submitted score (section by section) as the student's score. (This was reported in this thread by current students at Harvard.) It is to be expected that institutional incentives would work this way, because colleges report the SAT scores of their admitted classes as part of federal IPEDS and private enterprise Common Data Set reports. As long as a college is consistent in how it treats all applicants and admitted students, it might as well use internal methodologies that state higher rather than lower scores for each applicant and each admitted student. Beyond test scores as such, many other aspects of the application process (notably review of the students' high school transcripts) are far more important for making admission decisions than the number of times an applicant has taken the SAT I. </p>
<p>It seems to me irresponsible to suggest that the TYPICAL case of a college applicant taking the SAT I once more, or twice more, after a first sitting in which the scores still have room for improvement, is harmful at all to the applicant. Prepare well every time, yes, and get a good night's sleep before the test, definitely, but don't worry about taking the test more than once if YOU think it is a good idea. Harvard admission officers have spoken at public meetings I have attended in my town on more than one occasion to assure students, "Anyone can have a bad day," and that the Harvard admission officer procedure is to consider an applicant's best scores section by section. The actual practice reported in this thread backs up those public statements by current Harvard admission officers.</p>