<p>I’m gonna apply to Bowdoin for ED without my SAT scores. My SAT score is horrible; its 1470 composite.
I guess its not a good idea to send this score. I’m gonna give my SAT subject test this November, hoping its going to be good. Also I’m going to give ACT a try in December. </p>
<p>So my question is-
- Will my chances for getting admitted gets lower if I don’t submit my SAT score?
- Is my interview going to be really important for admission?
- Should I send my SAT subject test scores?
- Is it a good idea to apply for ED? (It’s my first choice, but will I be more competitive if I apply on RD?)</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>And one more thing, I’m going to need a huge amount of financial aid. </p>
<p>Take the ACT or retake the SAT.
Apply to Northwestern too. They don’t consider SATs for international students, so you don’t need to send it.</p>
<p>@DarkEclipse Is it a good idea to apply at Bowdoin for ED? </p>
<p>No. In the event that Bowdoin does not offer you generous FA, you will have no choice but the enroll there, since ED is always binding. Furthermore, you won’t have enough time to compare offers from other institutions. You can apply for EA, since it’s non-bonding.</p>
<p>Not sure that is true, DarkEclipse. If you apply ED and your financial aid package is insufficient, you are not bound to go.</p>
<p>@pilgrim6
Actually, you are. ED is always binding, what you are referring to is EA. That’s why two separate processes were made.</p>
<p>Dark Eclipse, not every school offers both EA and ED. In fact, many only offer ED. </p>
<p>I went through this process recently with a child who applied ED to a top notch school (no EA available) and was told by their financial aid office that if the financial aid package was not sufficient, my child did not have to attend. I clarified this three times before my child sent in the application. I imagine it has to work this way, otherwise students with financial need would be at a tremendous disadvantage in the ED process. The best advice is to check with the financial aid office at the school your child is interested in, and then confirm again. Schools may have different approaches on this.</p>
<p>Well, the some of the schools I’m applying to have binding ED. Meh, guess, it varies.</p>
<p>No, @DarkEclipse, there is one way to get out of a binding ED acceptance and that is if the FA package is not adequate. This is true for every school.</p>
<p>@LyricalLacuna
Well then! If that’s right, then I stand corrected 
And I hope I stand corrected.</p>
<p>No one answered my main questions :(</p>
<p>1) Does Bowdoin require SAT scores?
2) If they will take your interview; then yes.
3) Does Bowdoin require it?
4) Dunno.</p>
<p>OP,
- Bowdoin says that it will not affect your admission chances if you don’t send scores, so you can take them at their word I would think.
- On the CDS interviews are ranked as ‘considered’ (below important and very important) but are evaluative and are also recommended.<br>
- how can we answer this without knowing your scores?
- you don’t seem quite ready to submit an ED app and might benefit from some time to review your SAT II scores and figure out a strategy. Just my opinion of course.
MY real opinion is that no one online could make this kind of decision for you or even give you good input because there are too many variables we don’t know. I just answered because you asked and no one else was!</p>
<p>@DarkEclipse, yes you can definitely back out of any early acceptance if you can’t afford the school. It’s the one condition. </p>
<p>@DarkEclipse and @LyricalLacuna thank you guys! 
</p>
<p>@LyricalLacuna
I know I can back out EA, but what about ED? In what sense are they considered “binding”? </p>
<p>I don’t think you should think of it as ‘back out’ necessarily, but the provision for ALL early acceptances including ED is that you be able to afford it or you don’t have to accept the offer ( binding or not). That said, you probably shouldn’t go into an ED situation with the idea in the back of your mind of backing out. An ED application is meant for your clear number one school, and you would only not attend if the FA package was genuinely unaffordable. </p>
<p>From a New York Times article about early admissions:
Most students who are admitted early — at least 97 percent at the most selective colleges — actually enroll. But even good schools come up short. At N.Y.U., Johns Hopkins and Syracuse University, for example, typically 10 percent don’t enroll. Financial aid is often to blame, officials say. At Syracuse, about half the no-shows decline because they didn’t get into the academic program they wanted, says Donald A. Saleh, its vice president for enrollment management.</p>
<p>The most acceptable excuse officials cite for backing out of an early decision commitment is a financial aid package that a family considers too low. The financial aid letter is often the first time a family sees all the costs lined up, says Eric Maguire, director of admission at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa. “Some families are finding their aid packages are not aligned with their expectations. If so, we certainly enable them to break their commitment.”</p>
<p>Officials occasionally bend rules for other reasons, too. If he senses a student has applied under parental pressure and doesn’t really want to attend, “we back off,” says John F. Latting, director of undergraduate admissions at Johns Hopkins. Barbara Hall, associate provost at New York University, will also set unhappy students free. “They are, after all, 17 years old,” she says. “This is not a legal agreement they have signed. If a student says to us, ‘This is really where I thought I wanted to be, but I can’t see myself there now,’ we release the student. It doesn’t make sense to have students who don’t want to be here.”</p>
<p>Thanks for your time :)</p>