I had been planning on taking the SAT at least 2 times but honestly, it’s getting late due to corona pushing things back and I want to start applying to colleges already. However, I do want to apply with good test scores to possibly help with grants/scholarships and make me a more competitive applicant. I also have an ACT scheduled in December, but I’m thinking of cancelling it because again, I don’t want to wait that long but I still haven’t fully decided. Any advice is greatly appreciated.
Here are the universities I plan on applying to for reference:
Without knowing anything else about your stats, it’s hard to say. But your scores are fine for SCSU and CCSU, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they offer you some merit money, too. They are not fine for your reaches. But realistically, is there anything that you think that you can do before these next test administrations to improve your scores? Is there specific prep that you are doing?
I’m going to be honest, I didn’t really do much. I had planned on studying but procrastinated until the last few days before, where I did do practice questions for a few hours but only for the math section which resulted in me doing better on the math portion, which had never happened to me on the PSAT’s since I always did better on the reading/writing.
Are you planning to prepare for any test you take? If you’re going to spend a few hours on one section, it may not be worth the cost.
If you are going to invest several hours for several weekends taking sample tests, studying the errors that you make, etc., you could improve your scores by 100 points or so, making you more competitive at several schools.
Wanting good scores to be more competitive doesn’t make it happen. You need to decide whether you are going to make the effort to make it worth it.
It is not a competitive test score for Boston University, and you will not be offered a merit based scholarship based on it. You need at least around 1390-1400 to have a decent/good chance at acceptance and scholarships.
It is most likely even less competitive with a school such as Northeaster.
I am sorry! I hope you choose/can retake it and STUDY (don’t waste the money/time by taking it without studying and trying your best)! Good luck!
What is your gpa? Central and Southern don’t give much merit (S is instate and had decent stats for those schools and got $1000) but they’re inexpensive to begin with.