looking for advice

[2Queen]

Hello lovely people of college confidential:

Unfortunately, I have just received my decision and I have been deferred. However, I was wondering whether you could possibly help me make a decision.

I don’t care about grades at all (although I must admit my grades are pretty good) but my SAT score was 1860. My question: do you think I should bother retaking? My SAT 2s by the way were 750 and 770.

Thank you in advance for your input!

[Gumbymom]

Yes, I would retake the SAT since you are way below the 25th pecentile.

[gibby]

You shouldn’t retake the test hoping that it will help turn your deferral into an acceptance, as that’s unlikely. Another OP just posted this article which I was not aware of: http://www.boston.com/news/education/2015/12/11/harvard-accepts-record-low-percentage-early-applicants/MftCiYFa9nRmUOvjMolGGO/story.html

Last year, just 2.3 percent of applicants who were deferred to the regular admissions cycle received acceptance letters.

So, you need to concentrate on your other RD applications. And for those schools, a higher SAT would place you in a better position. I also hope you have many target and safety schools on your list from this group of colleges: http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/a-plus

If you’re a good student with less-than-stellar test scores . . . these are the schools for you.

[2Queen]

Given that I am not a B student (in fact, very far from it), do you still think I should not retake my SAT…I took it once.

[gibby]

While you may not be a ‘B’ student, your SAT scores are extremely low for a top 10 college and are way out of sync with your GPA. And that’s a red flag in the Admissions process.

An ‘A’ student taking a rigorous course selection of honors and AP classes should have an SAT of 2100+ or an ACT of 31+. So, when an Admissions officer looks at your transcript, and compares it to your test score, they are going to wonder what happened. Does your high school have grade inflation? Is the course rigor of your high school not that strong? Is English not your first language? Do you have test anxiety? Did you have a very bad day when you took the test? Those questions are going to be asked no matter what college you apply to.

If you are an ‘A’ student, I would try taking the ACT as it thought to be a lot more straight forward than the SAT without as many 'trick questions." You can find a few practice ACT tests on-line and see how you do.

Look at this another way. Your test scores are below that of any accepted URM at Harvard or Yale from the class of 2019. So, you need to do something about your test scores if you want to be a competitive applicant for the ivy’s or any top 10-20 college.

Harvard Class of 2019 SCEA Decision Thread http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/1714730-official-harvard-university-2019-scea-decisions-only-p1.html

#11 - Female, Black, deferred with ACT 29

21 - Male, Hispanic, accepted with SAT of 2220 and ACT 35

29 - Female, African American, accepted with SAT 2240

30 - Female, African American, accepted with SAT 2130

39 - Male, African American, deferred with SAT 2230

40 - Female, African American, accepted with SAT 2400

44 - Female, African American, sibling, accepted with SAT 2140

47 - Male, African American, deferred with SAT 2010 and ACT 25

57 - Male, Hispanic, deferred with SAT 2220 and ACT 32

62 - Male, Black, accepted with ACT 32

63 - No gender listed, African American, accepted with ACT 32

Harvard Class of 2019 RD Decision Thread: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/1752941-harvard-university-class-of-2019-rd-results-p1.html

#1 - Male, Hispanic, accepted with SAT 2300

3 - Male, Hispanic, accepted with ACT 33

6 - Male, Hispanic, waitlisted with ACT 35

7 - Male, Hispanic, rejected with SAT 2340

10 - Female, African American, accepted with SAT 2100

21 - Male, Hispanic,accepted with ACT 31

33 - Female, African American, accepted with SAT 2380

Yale Class of 2019 SCEA Decision Thread
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/yale-university/1713050-yale-class-of-2019-scea-decisions-p1.html

#3 - Male, African American (Questbridge), deferred with SAT 1940 and ACT 35

15 - Male, Hispanic, deferred with SAT 2400

17 - Male, Hispanic, deferred with ACT 33

18 - Male, African American, accepted with SAT 2230

33 - Female, Cuban, accepted with SAT 2270 and ACT 33

34 - Male, African American, rejected with SAT 2030

35 - Female, Hispanic, deferred with SAT 1980

46 - Female, Mexican, accepted with SAT 2170

Yale Class of 2019 RD Decision Thread: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/yale-university/1752938-yale-university-class-of-2019-rd-results.html

#9 - Male, Hispanic, rejected with SAT 2170

11 - Female, African American, rejected with SAT 2100

14 - Female, Latina, waitlisted with SAT 2200

20 - Male, Hispanic, rejected with SAT 2300

22 - Female, African American, accepted with SAT 2240 composite and ACT 35

23. Female, Hispanic, accepted with SAT 1910 (ranked 8th in her class of 465 students with an UW 3.9 GPA)

[MYOS1634]

Your test scores are those that would make the universities ranked in the 50/60range a match.
DO retake but it will not make a sufficient difference for Harvard, unless you’re a recruited athlete.
In the meanwhile, focus on universities that are test optional and test flexible - Bowdoin, Wesleyan, NYU, etc. - since your Sat 2s would be useful. DO you only have two scores though? Because test flexible colleges typically want three.
Then look at universities with a bottom 25% around 1860-1880.
Have you prepared for the test since you first took it? You have about a month to get 200points, which may well be infeasible. Take a practice test. If you don’t score at least 1950, switch focus and find affordable matches and safeties.
The act test was today so, alas, that ship has sailed, although that was excellent advice.
Op, you may want to contribute to a thread on this website, started by ucbalumnus, about students taking the Sat junior or senior year.

[2Queen]

Thank you for your time…guess I’m going to retake

[compmom]

Of course retake. You only took them once, and scores will go up. The first one is almost practice. Schools will still take a January test even after the application deadline.

Your SAT II’s so far are stellar and those show real accomplishment.

If your SAT’s don’t go up, plenty of top schools are test optional. http://fairtest.org/university/optional Please look at this list, it will surprise you (Bowdoin, Bates, Brandeis, Bryn Mawr, just for B’s).

For many schools your current scores are more than fine. In the real world they are great. It also makes a difference if you are strong in a certain area but weak in another. Harvard admissions used to write on their website that they understand that there can be imbalances, and so do other schools.

Please look at resources like “Colleges that Change Lives” and “Looking Beyond the Ivy League” even if you are applying to Ivies and such. Think about fit. It is not just about you fitting the college, it is also about the college fitting you.

[sherpa]

The simple answer is yes, you should take the SAT again. Good luck with Harvard and your other applications too.