<p>i'm super nervous as of right now due to starting to really get into the application process. reed has been my dream for the last year and i have continued to become more and more nervous over my math testing scores on the SAT/ACT. i have never claimed to be wonderful at math/science. i find the topics very interesting and spend free time reading theories relating to them, more due to my general love of learning rather than any inherent gift in the subject area. i am much better suited toward reading analysis and writing. i enjoy writing papers and essays, as well as pouring through multiple books a week. i believe that i am fairly capable at doing this as well.</p>
<p>both my reading and writing scores on the SAT/ACT match the averages for reed, however my math score is about 100 points lower than i would like. i don't test well with math. i have a general understanding of the subject matter but am terrible at testing and being timed on the subject. math has always made me nervous and the perfectionist inside me doesn't do very well with being timed on it.</p>
<p>i'm not sure of the amount of emphasis reed would place on this in accepting me. does anyone have any thoughts?</p>
<p>It will probably hold you back a little, but if Reed is truly the place for you and you manage to convey that in your essays, I doubt your M score will be detrimental to the outcome of your application.</p>
<p>(But I’d still like to know your exact scores before fully committing to the above prediction. Is your M score in the 500s? The high/low 600s? Below 500?)</p>
<p>i am retaking the SAT for the third time this weekend and hoping to improve the math and do a few points better on the reading so that at least a perfect reading score will reflect better on me.</p>
<p>I’m in a similar place. Reading/writing above the 75th percentile, math more than a little below the 25th percentile. I was shocked to see that my scores were so low – I genuinely like math class. I’ve always gotten As (which may or may not be a reflection of my school), and even though I’m the sort of dude that will generally prioritize a dissection of Antigone in favor of an extra hour of AP Stats in my nightly homework load, I never, ever thought that my scores would be where they are. </p>
<p>Wish I could offer more comfort than the obligatory “Liberal Arts = holistic review” thingy, but I’m just as nervous about… things. I’m applying ED to Reed and I’ve jumped through the other arbitrary numerical hoops to get into a hyper-selective college. I feel like I’m a perfect fit for Reed (remains to be seen if the feeling is mutual) and I feel like that should carry more weight than the SAT score, but I dunno.</p>
<p>ugh. i’m glad to hear that someone else is in the same boat. i am literally a walking ball of anxiety right now.</p>
<p>i think that i’ve come to the conclusion that i simply don’t test well in the math area…i also have gotten straight A’s through my math classes, am currently taking college stats, etc. reed is my perfect fit and the only school that i would be willing to spend that much tuition/debt on. it’s not the end of the world if i don’t get in, but i know that i wouldn’t have the same experience anywhere else.</p>
<p>ha i just freaked out and decided that i now have to figure out how to fit in an interview in the next two months</p>
<p>Chill! My math scores were pretty bad and I got in just fine. It’s not about the SAT scores and I hope you realize that if you want to come to Reed so much. If you don’t get in, it won’t be because of some numbers that obviously don’t indicate your aptitude in math (they will notice the A’s in your math classes). It would be because they didn’t feel you conveyed strongly enough what going to Reed means to you and why you feel you would be a good fit here and contribute to the school. So focus on that! You can mention in your interview that you feel you didn’t do as well on the math section as you could have but instead of trying to make them gloss over those scores, make them notice everything else about you, specifically how badly you want this.</p>
<p>Yeah, Reed is a smart enough college to realize that SAT scores, let alone ONE section of them, is hardly enough to discount a student’s potential to flourish and succeed here :)</p>
<p>At the same time, let me just remind you all that this year the matriculating class’s SAT mid 50% range was 1950-2210 (630-720 for math). While it is true that the Reed adcom puts a lot of weight on your personality and what it perceives to be your compatibility with Reed’s values and spirit, saying that it doesn’t care about your scores and has some mysterious way of measuring your “potential to flourish here” that somehow doesn’t involve the SAT at all… is naive.</p>
<p>But yes, lots of people here did worse on the math section of the SAT than on the other two, or at least that’s what the raw numbers seem to suggest.</p>
<p>^I didn’t say they could “measure” their potential to flourish here, and no one said Reed doesn’t care about your scores at all. I said that having one bad SAT score, when that appears to be a sole blemish on the application and when contrasted with good grades (especially for the subject in question), does not put the student out of the running. I also did not say that an adcom “measures” a student’s potential to flourish. It’s a holistic judgment that hardly depends on SAT scores. The meat of the application is still the essays (esp supplements), your GPA, and the rigor of your high school schedule. On the tier below that you have test scores, but also interview, recommendations, and level of interest (and class rank, but that’s not applicable in every situation). (Source: College Board).</p>