I don’t think improving her SAT score would be helpful. Both the ACT and SAT reflect how well she can do on tests. The GPA reflects other things. Having better test scores doesn’t cancel out the GPA.
@Marian, I agree. They reflect different things. But she knows she can’t do much to improve her GPA at this point.
I would use the ACT score and have her work hard on getting great first semester grades.
To other who may read this later - a single sitting high ACT or SAT never looks like a fluke. Its VERY impressive vs sitting for the ACT or SAT multiple times (which shows heavy prep and may even show that the student is wealthy enough to have tutoring and time to retake).
As to the weighting vs unweighted - I think there is a fine line. The student needs to know what their abilities are and their EC time constraints and take the honors / AP courses that they feel they can excel at, and take regular college prep on ones they can’t. If your D has a lot of Bs in APs, she should have dropped down a level on some so that there is a mix of As ad Bs. Unweighted GPA does matter.
There isn’t much difference between Richmond and Dickinson in terms of SAT/ACT scores, so I’d put both of those schools in the same category (high match/low reach?).
Subject test scores and AP scores can help balance out a lower gpa. My kid’s gpa was less than perfect, but scores were good. For example, when you’ve got something like a 90 in US history --good, but not great–but a 790 on the US history subject test and a 5 on the AP exam, it’s obvious that you did learn the material and the grade is due to other issues, e.g., not doing homework. So, if your D has or can obtain high scores in her B subjects, it can help.
Impressive to whom? I never heard a single admissions officer say they were impressed by a single sitting score. (FWIW both my kids did quite well the first time they took the SAT, and had almost exactly the same scores the second time.)
LOL at Jonri’s post - that was my younger son. He had a bit of a feud with his AP World teacher (who he says made up facts regularly). He got an 89 in the class, and a 5 on the AP, and I think a 98 or 99 on the NYS Regents exam.
Single sitting score is not so impressive, but taking a test multiple times to achieve a good score is unimpressive. OP’so kid should forget about retaking SAT as the gap with ACT34 (SAT 1540) is pretty big.