<p>Most college websites I’ve visited say that they consider the ACT score as a whole and the SAT subscores individually. She has so much more going for her that I think slightly lower math will probably get overlooked. I know I would, for a classics major.</p>
<p>Son’s ACT scores were like this. 36/35 English and Reading and 32/29 Math and Science. Second time around–first time the Science score was 25! So if this is the first time around, I would think abotu taking the test again. </p>
<p>But really, do schools scrutinize subscores so carefully? I would think that the overall composite would be much more important.</p>
<p>I’m sure it is the composite that counts, but the SAT has a similar discrepancy and always will. Not because she’s terrible at math, but because her middle school was behind in the math sequence, so she’s not as far along as she would be if she had attended a different school. When she applies, this lopsidedness will definitely remain. She’s not applying to top schools, though, except Barnard, and she knows she has pretty much no chance there. The next most selective school will possibly be Bryn Mawr, which accepts about 45% and her scores (she is re-taking both tests) put her above the 75th% in CR and smack-dab at 50% in math. Above 75th in SAT writing and at 75th in ACT composite. Can’t fathom where she fits in.</p>
<p>When we went to visit A&M, they said that for the ACT, they look at Math and English - not reading or science, when assessing scores - which is good for my son who got a 36 math, 35 English, but a 26 reading (because he screwed up his timing and had to guess in the last part of the section).</p>
<p>I was really worried about the discrepancy also, but was assured that (at least at the schools he’s looking at) it won’t be an issue.</p>
<p>At UT, they look at composite.</p>
<p>I guess each school may have their own methodology.</p>
<p><a href=“because%20he%20screwed%20up%20his%20timing%20and%20had%20to%20guess%20in%20the%20last%20part%20of%20the%20section”>quote</a>.
[/quote]
That’s what happened to D. She forgot her watch and didn’t time the math well and ended up with a bunch un-done. She did perfectly fine on the questions she answered, so that was optimistic, but one can only count on the scores already owned, so I was wondering how to approach this.</p>
<p>I guess have her retake it. I wanted my son to retake his because of the low reading score, but once he heard that it won’t be an issue, he’s sticking with this one.</p>
<p>Always one of my favorites. </p>
<p>Let’s say the School’s 25-75 profile for SAT I is</p>
<p>CR: 670 - 760
M: 660 - 750
WR: 650 - 750</p>
<p>Student A:</p>
<p>SATI: </p>
<p>CR: 730
M: 730
WR:740 </p>
<p>SAT II: 730
SAT II: 730</p>
<p>Student B:</p>
<p>SATI: </p>
<p>CR: 790
M: 670
WR: 740</p>
<p>SAT II: 770
SAT II: 770</p>
<p>Prospective Major: English or Political Theory or History or Philosophy </p>
<p>Which one is the “better” candidate, all other things being equal?</p>
<p>So will you be wiping up the monitor when my brain explodes, WesDad?</p>
<p>Zoose- from what you’ve posted about your D she is a very solid candidate for Bryn Mawr. 50% in Math given everything else she has going for her, plus her somewhat unusual interests (she’ll write a killer essay I’m assuming- or at least not the typical “what I learned from being on the soccer team” type of thing) seem to me to be what our GC would have designated “not a problem”.</p>
<p>Does your school have Naviance, and have enough girls applied to BM to even make it a useful tool?</p>
<p>We don’t have naviance, i don’t think a single student has ever applied to Bryn Mawr (it’s an inner-city public), and the GC “doesn’t offer advice on admissions.” So heaven only knows!</p>
<p>So now you have geographic diversity on your side as well! (Just kidding).</p>
<p>ZooserMom, I will PM you.</p>
<p>very lopsided S here
800 M 650 CR 530 W 3.1 GPA
he was accepted to almost all his choices (except his reaches which were schools that generally accept kids with nothing less than a 3.8 and a composite SAT of over 2000)
I just don’t think there is any way to predict what most colleges are looking for.
All S’s accepted school awarded him merit aid - surprisingly the highest awards came from LAC’s not the tech schools. I think his involvment in music and theater counteracted the poor scores and grades in writing based humanities.
In short, schools look at much more than SAT’s when evaluating an application. That said, some of the very top schools have so many exceptional scorers and GPAs to choose from, in many cases, the lopsided kids, like my S, will be overlooked. Luckily there is great education to be had just below that tier of schools.</p>
<p>Wesdad–If I were an adcom, I’d go with Student B.</p>
<p>zoosermom, if it’s any help to you my D’s best friend’s stats were so similar it’s uncanny. She even had extensive tutoring in Math and it still didn’t help. She is not a math person and will never be.</p>
<p>She did fine in admissions. I think she was in at Boston University with merit, not in at Tufts. She accepted a fine school where she is doing very well. My D on the other hand is an engineering major. She did a little bit of tutoring and her scores were M-33, E-31. She got into all of her schools except her extreme reach. But I owe her good luck to the fact that she’s a girl in engineering, she probably would not have had the same results if she was going into another field</p>
<p>I would not discount Barnard yet. I think that it’s not as uncommon as you think for lopsided scores. Many engineering students, my S is one, were lopsided in favor of math and science. It works the same way. </p>
<p>I would see if with a few practice tests and with a little bit of tutoring she could up her Math score. I wouldn’t worry too much but the ACT is all about the timing and if she can do the problems quickly, she should be able to up her score.</p>
<p>zoos, my “lopsided” humanities-focused D (a twin of yours :)?) was accepted at all of her LAC choices where her non-math scores were in the 75% percentile and above (math was at or below 50%). From what I’ve read about your D, she is a perfect candidate for Bryn Mawr. Good luck to her!</p>
<p>Thank you all so much! You have great information. The rest of her potential schools are, I think, ok because they’re places like Seton Hall, Fairfield, Catholic and Loyola of Maryland. Not sure bets, of course, but not silly to apply to.</p>
<p>“Wesdad–If I were an adcom, I’d go with Student B.”</p>
<p>Yeah, me too. But I’m biased as my D fit the Student B profile (her actual scores were not exactly the same as Student B, but close).</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>Sorry, I thought that you were just raising a hypothetical situation. Passes the smell test here especially for a non-engineering student. 28 is actually not a bad score, just not as stellar as the 35. </p>
<p>Is there a retest possibility? Math is one area that a little bit of brushing up and working example problems can help.</p>
<p>Did you already mention this, but are the rest of the scores on the 35 level or on the 28 level?</p>
<p>zoosermom,</p>
<p>I think your D is a very strong candidate for Bryn Mawr. It’s not widely appreciated, but high SAT CR scores are much rarer than high Math scores, and are in much demand at LACs where much of the curriculum is tilted in that direction. Among the roughly 1.5 million 2008 college-bound seniors who took the SAT reasoning test, only 24,569 scored 750 or higher on CR, as contrasted with the 40,466 who scored 750 or higher on Math. </p>
<p>As for the ACT scores, I agree with those who suggested the ACT composite is more important than the subscores. Most colleges don’t superscore the ACT, I assume because they’re looking primarily or exclusively at the composite. US News shows Bryn Mawr’s middle 50% ACT as 27-30, so if your D’s composite is anywhere north of 30 she’s in top quartile. But they also show middle 50% ACT subscores of 27-33 English (again putting your D in the top quartile) and 25-30 Math (putting your D in the second quartile). I don’t think the lower math subscore will drag her down. At that level I’d rate Bryn Mawr, with its 44+% acceptance rate, a match. For a schools with a lower admit rate, say in the low 20s, it might be a reach, but then schools with such low admit rates are probably reaches for everyone. If she wants to boost her chances of admission she could apply to Bryn Mawr ED; their ED acceptance rate is somewhere in the range of 77%, and frankly it’s hard to see her being turned down given those odds and where she stacks up in their applicant pool.</p>