Background…My daughter is a junior. Her SAT first sitting 750 verbal, 770 math; SAT Math 2 770 SAT 2 lit 750.
She has varsity sport and lead in musical in spring and would really prefer to read books and hang out with family and friends over the holidays. She is not a fan of preparing or taking up weekends on standardized tests so does not particularly want to take any more of these…unless it will matter. Her current dream school is Yale. She is not hooked and understands it is a long shot even with perfect scores and grades.
Question…Would it significantly improve her application to take other subject tests or retake SAT? Or are these enough in the ballpark to get her a good look and time is better spent on other activities? Future major uncertain but currently into neuroscience, music and religion class.
Can someone get in to those schools with a 1520? Of course. Is it more likely with a >1580? There is considerable debate on that. I tend to think that for any particular individual student applying to any particular individual college, having scores at, around or above the 75th percentile tend to indicate a better chance of acceptance than a similar student with scores closer to the 25th percentile.
I also think that is more likely to be true with schools that indicate standardized test scores as being “Very Important” in their CDS as compared to schools that place lesser importance on standardized test scores.
FWIW, at my son’s HS, HYPMS admissions success was about 3 times more likely for kids with 2350+ as compared to those with an SAT of ~2200
Thank you so much tdy123! Very interesting about your school’s experience with the higher test scores. D’s school does not have that kind of data.
So to increase her odds, you would recommend retaking the SAT1 to hopefully get the score higher and not focusing on another subject test? Or would you also do another subject test?
If she does retake and doesn’t get 1550+, she would have to send both scores to Yale, does that weaken her position? Maybe should take ACT instead next summer?
She’s fine. She meets the bar for high test scores and will be fine - although sending one or two more subject tests in the mid 700s would show how well rounded she is. (also, retesting with such high scores could backfire: students should know when they’ve reached a high scores and leave it alone, showing they understand education is different from testing.) But ultimately, at this point, test scores won’t make the difference. ECs recommendations, essays will matter way more.
In your subject heading, you ask if it’s worth the effort. For my child, he went from a 34 to a 36 on the ACT just doing practice tests the weekend before the exam. The difference between the scores is really just a few questions, and at this level, the kids know there stuff–it’s more just a matter of executing on the day of the exam.
Thank you MYOs1634–that is what I find myself wanting to tell her. She is quite fortunate to have good scores this early in the process.
If the difference is just a few questions and the any particular day effect, I would think it shouldn’t matter to adcoms if it is a 34 or 36 or a 1520 or 1580–yet there does seem to be some correlation to higher admit rates with higher scores…
If one could take the geniuses out of that highest score pool and blindly compare the kids with 34 vs 36, would there be much difference?
Really appreciate the varying perspectives and experiences.
Agree with @tdy123 and there is empirical data to prove this. See the following link to Brown admissions who breaks out standard test scores and admissions rates in pretty good detail and note how admissions rates ratchet up as scores increase. https://www.brown.edu/admission/undergraduate/explore/admission-facts I would think the same pattern holds true for all the highly selectives.
A 1520 does put your daughter solidly in the running, but since she is only a junior, taking it one more time, maybe right after the summer when she has more time to prep seems worth it to me. I would have her take the SAT since Yale superscores the SAT. I would not have her take any more SAT2’s unless she is considering schools like Georgetown that recommend 3 SAT2’s. Yale only recommends 2, and she has more than adequate scores in the 2 she took. She can better use the time to prep for the SAT, her schoolwork, EC’s or just having fun.
It is difficult to tease out whether the higher scores correlate with other achievements, and whether that’s what makes the difference wrt acceptances. It’s not a stretch to imagine that such a correlation exists.
Why not take a shot at the ACT? One of my kids was a better ACT test taker than SAT. If the score stays the same or declines, nothing lost. If it jumps, just report it. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
I would not take any other SAT 2s. The current ones are fine.
How much do you really want to improve a 770/750? She’s fine.
You’d be a ton better off looking at what these top colleges want besides stats. Seriously. That’s why a chunk of top performers don’t get admits, not that they didn’t try to improve a 750 or 770.
You need to understsnd holistic is more than scores and a couple of ECs she likes or leader titles.