<p>Okay.... so I'm sure you've heard this PLENTY of times but I'm pretty darn scared about my SAT scores and how they will correspond with the colleges I want to go to. I did well enough on my PSAT's to allow me to be a commended student. However, I got only a 2070 on my SAT's. Now this wouldn't be such a big deal if I didn't want to go to Columbia, University of Chicago, Northwestern, or Georgetown. My mom was all, "Honey, don't worry about it. You've got so much going for you," but I'm pretty certain she's just saying that because she has to. Do you think I should set my sights for college a little bit lower? I mean I try to be as well rounded as I can. I have good grades, I spend most of my afternoons volunteering, I teach music, I play volleyball, I sing in choir/play in band, and I'm the vp of my class, but I'm not sure my raw smarts are good enough to get into a top college.... Any comments?</p>
<p>You have 12 months before you must submit your final scores. That means you can take the December 2012 test. A lot can happen for you between now and then – including raising your scores by 10%, if only because of personal growth, 2 semesters of high school courses in math and English, on going writing assignments and occasional review and study. It’s much to early “to settle”.</p>
<p>It’s hard to do … but … avoid letting the SAT scores serve to define your “raw” smartness. The difference between “2070” and 2200 is 10 or so additional “right” answers or even “right” guesses on the SAT.</p>
<p>If you raise your SAT to 2200ish, then you should be set for those schools. If not, then you still might have a chance with your gpa, ecs, recs, essays. I know someone who got into Stanford with only a 1700, anything can happen. Your score is already good, even if you don’t get into your top choices, you’ll still probably get into a top 20 university. Shoot for atleast 2100 on the SAT, 2200 for your goal schools.</p>
<p>TAKE IT AGAIN. You can take it as many times as you want to. Don’t stress. Also, I know some people who got into Cornell and Columbia with 2000s. And realistically, SAT scores don’t determine your intelligence. There’s not really a significant difference between 2000 and 2200.</p>
<p>Honestly, a 2070 is really good. Maybe not incredible for CC, but 99% of the people on here make up the top 2 or 3% of testtakers, easily.
If you’re not happy with your score, retake, not a big deal. But when put in perspective, just remember that a 2070 can get into the vast majority of schools.</p>
<p>I got a 2040 on the first SAT I took and just recently raised it to a 2240. Just take a lot of practice tests (college board’s online SAT course is perfect for this), learn more vocab, drill through math problems, and read as much as possible.</p>
<p>Your score will fluctuate from test to test depending on the curve. It wouldn’t hurt to try again, but I would recommend you practice. I’m a junior too, and I took a prep course over the summer which really helped. After that I didn’t take a single practice test for like 3 months and I still pulled a 2210. As long as you practice substantially and retain your memory of the test format/types of questions/concepts being tested, you should be able to score higher.
And don’t worry, you still have a lot of oppurtunities to retake it.</p>