<p>I was involved in a serious car accident that required a month of physical therapy approximately two weeks before I was scheduled to take the November SAT subject tests. Not wanting to miss out on taking a language test with listening, I went ahead and took them (not to mention I needed them for my early decision school). When I got my scores back, they ranged from 640 to 570. I'm ranked in the top 3 of my class with an unweighted GPA of 4.0 and I am an IB diploma candidate. My SAT score is a 1450/2120 and I have a 32 ACT. I also have varsity athletics, club leadership, etc. My SAT subject test scores seem out of place in context with my entire application and I do not have the option of taking them again. How should I explain the situation with the car accident to colleges without seeming like I am just making an excuse?</p>
<p>That kind of issue is usually something your guidance counselor should explain in his/her letter. You could try to ask him/her to mention it.</p>
<p>My guidance counselor has already sent in her letter to my ED school. Should I have her revise it for my regular decision schools in case I don’t get into my ED school? I’ve emailed my ED school to ask if there is course of action that I can take to explain the situation, but I don’t know how to phrase it so that I don’t seem like I’m just trying to make up an excuse because of poor scores. Any ideas?</p>
<p>If you can truly show how your physical therapy affected your ability to prepare for the test to the extent that it alone brought down your grade, I don’t think it seems as if you’re making excuses. As long as you are being honest and specific, you should be able to make a solid argument.</p>
<p>I’m not sure about the ED school. Others might have better advice as to whether or not you should send them a letter. Definitely have your GC revise her RD letter.</p>
<p>Okay. By the way, the physical therapy is just an example of the extent of the accident. I was on painkillers when I took the test and so that affected me on test day quite a bit. I don’t remember if I was still in my neck brace, but you get the idea…</p>
<p>Ah, gotcha. Yeah I think you have a legitimate reason. But be sure to continue to solicit other people’s advice, I’m no expert.</p>
<p>Okay thank you very much, DE! </p>
<p>Anyone else?</p>
<p>that’s so unfair to everyone else applying.</p>
<p>I mean you save taking sat 2’s to the last minute, and then something comes up.
It’s your own fault for procrastinating so much.</p>
<p>Colleges can’t just assume that you wouldv’e gotten above 700’s on your sat 2’s; it’s really hard to do that and there is no evidence that you actually would have, not even high grades or ap scores are evidence that you definetely would’ve done well.</p>
<p>That’s what you get for procrastinating so much. I mean, if you could just get a free ride and colleges would just assume that you shouldv’e gotten good sat 2 scores, then everyone would just fake being sick on the day of the sat 2’s and then tell the colleges; oh, I was sick and did badly so just assume that I would’ve gotten 700’s on them.</p>
<p>Sat 2’s are important admissions criteria and I can’t imagine schools cutting you much slack. If a kid procrastinated and took the sat 2s at the last possible date but had a fever and did badly, colleges wouldn’t care they’d say “welll, that’s what you get for procrastinating.” same with your situation.</p>
<p>But the rest of your app is probably really strong good luck getting in.</p>
<p>When you read CC over time you get the impression that at least a third of college applicants have some special circumstance that caused something to not be ideal. I can only guess how many excuses the adcom at a typical college reads every day.</p>
<p>IMO, the counselor is the only one who should put forth any excuses. If a third party adult really believes something is not properly reflecting a student’s ability a college might buy in, but from the student it looks like whining.</p>
<p>Okay, I had spoken to my guidance counselor and she gave me the choice of writing an “additional info” essay to explain this or having her revise her letter of recommendation. I think I am going to go with having her add something to her letter. Should I ask her to fax a quick explanation to my ED school?</p>
<p>To theendusputrid:</p>
<p>Getting into a serious car accident that requires extended physical therapy is hardly “faking sick.” It is not “unfair” because the success of his excuse depends on the legitimacy of his argument.</p>
<p>they’d look at grades, ECs, class rank, rigor of courses, etc. It is very believable your accident caused low test scores and you should definitely explain it. In fact, if you have high grades, especially in those subjects in school, they would wonder why you scored low if you don’t explain.</p>
<p>the op shouldn’t have saved taking the sat 2’s to the LAST possible test date.</p>
<p>If a person saved taking the sat 2’s till the last possible test date and had a high fever the week before the sat 2’s and didn’t do well, colleges would go, sorry but that’s what you get for procrastinating. Same situation with if you got into a car wreck.</p>
<p>College admin ppl can’t just assume that the op would’ve done well and not take into account the fact that your sat 2 scores were bad. </p>
<p>In addition, scores between 570 and 640 are below average for top colleges, but they are still above average. They are not enough to completely wreck your application, since the op has good sats and grades.</p>
<p>I’m just being realistic, adcoms place a lot of weight on the sat 2’s in admissions and if they hear, “sorry I waited till the last second to take the sat 2’s and something happened and that’s why I got low scores, so please just assume that I would’ve gotten 700’s or above because that’s what I would’ve gotten,” that’s not a good enough excuse. the adcom will say, that’s what you get for procrastinating, sorry. maybe if the op had had a serious illness that prevented her from testing for 6 months, she would have a legitamate reason for not being able to take the tests at full strength, but sorry she was a procrastinator.</p>
<p>Good luck to the op, I don’t mean to be harsh, but it’s just not realistic to think that the low scores (for top schools) won’t hurt her in college admissions to stop schools. </p>
<p>The two times I took my sat 2’s I was unlucky enough to have a fever each time, and I’m sure I would’ve gotten above 700’s if I were 100 percent, but instead I only got high 600’s. That’s bad luck for me, but hey that’s life, and I’m not going to make excuses to college admin ppl.</p>
<p>i just don’t see how she could a free pass for bad sat 2’s from college admin ppl for not being 100 percent when she procrastinated taking sat 2s till the last possible test date</p>
<p>when I had a fever and was not even close 100 percent when I took them twice.</p>
<p>that wouldn’t be fair</p>
<p>I’m really sorry about your accident and I’m glad that you’re doing better. :)</p>
<p>Overall, though, I agree with theendusputrid. I mean, who’s to say that you would have done better if you had prepared, anyways? And IMO, SAT IIs are not necessarily intended to be studied for. If those are the scores that you got when you went in without prep, then they’re the scores that you deserve (as someone who went in without prep, as many people do.)</p>
<p>Putrid, I see where you’re coming from, but you don’t know full situation and you’re beginning to sound foolish. I took the SAT with a horrible sinus infection (I was in and out of school for a month, on my third round of intensive antibiotics when I took it). I still scored in the 700s for the sections. Like I said, I’m not trying to make any excuses because I chose to take the SAT IIs the only time that the listening section was offered and I wasn’t “100%” that day. I’m just trying to explain an incongruity in my application because of an extenuating circumstance. I’m not trying to convince colleges that I would have scored 700+ had this not happened, but simply lower a red flag.</p>
<p>Also, I don’t think that it’s clear that I think that if I hadn’t had the accident, I would’ve had time to study and therefore my scores would be higher. I was on prescription painkillers when I took the tests and that is what affected me.</p>
<p>I disagree with you guys. My friend’s cousin experienced a loss in his family in his junior year and totally failed his standardized tests. However, he did take the most rigorous course load and applied/graduated in the top 2% of his class. His scores were not up to par but he was going through a rough time. He is now at Columbia.</p>
<p>What subject tests did you take and what grades did you get in those classes (if those were taken in school?) I mean I know though it is the last possible minute, and colleges have nothing to compare your standardized tests to (other tests) they do have your transcript of rigorous courses (if you took most rigorous) and your great GPA and know that you are capable of doing the work. It is up to your essays/ECs/recs. You should let them know you were on painkillers and it affected your scores. Adcoms won’t assume you would score high, but they know you could have possibly fared better and will take your scores with a grain of salt in light of that situation and the strength of the rest of your application.</p>
<p>that’s way different though he didn’t procrastinate and save the sat 2s to the last minute like the op did.
Good luck to him.</p>
<p>Admission officer are going to be way more sympathetic to someone who lost a family member during his junior year than someone who saved the sat 2s to the last minute and then couldn’t do well as she thought she could’ve (but still above average scores) because she was on meds.</p>
<p>I took Literature, US History and Spanish w/ Listening. I’m in IB Spanish Six HL, IB English HL, and IB History of the Americas HL. Like the rest of my classes, I’ve gotten straight As in all of these (not inflated–an IB curriculum). I’m hoping that if the adcoms know the situation, they will pay more attention to how I’ve done in my classes for four years as opposed to a couple of hours while on painkillers. I hope that my course rigor and how I’ve done in them should show them that I’m a good student that just had a bad situation.</p>