<p>As many of you know, we are well finished with such questions in jmmoms house (DS now finishing junior year). But I am asking this for a family friend.</p>
<p>Junior, female, SATs in one sitting are high 1400s (M and CR), over 2200 total.
SATIIs of 780 (MathII) and 750 (Chem). </p>
<p>She is happy with her scores and this family is NOT score-obsessed. But they are wondering what value or importance there might be in cracking the 1500 mark with these SAT I scores for <em>some</em> of the schools she is considering.</p>
<p>She is interested in the sciences or maybe Engineering. </p>
<p>She is not interested in the Tech schools and is already thinking in the way of a well-balanced list. She is fortunate to live in a state with top-notch flagship, which I think she likes although not her first choice, and she will apply there. Shes thinking of schools along the caliber of Tulane/Case/UMiami for safer schools. She really likes a couple at the next level of a Hopkins/Duke/WashU. And she has interests in one or two at the Ivy/Stanford level.</p>
<p>So its for those more selective schools that they have the question of whether to try again on the SAT I.</p>
<p>For a bit more background: she might well be val or sal of her class in a quality public school. GPA is currently 4.4w/3.9uw. Lots of APs and others are Honors where offered. Family feels she has pretty solid ECs and summer activities. </p>
<p>I havent talked with them about finances but my impression is that merit aid, while everyone likes it, is not something that they <em>must</em> seek out and they have not mentioned financial aid considerations to me as a criterion in choosing schools. </p>
<p>So, to retake or not to retake? That is the question.</p>
<p>And at some schools it just meant alot. ;) </p>
<p>(That's a chance for $40K more at UMiami for a Saturday morning's effort .)</p>
<p>I'm kidding- sort of. D had a 1470 and a 32. We thought she was done but a few posters on cc really pushed hard that for the top awards she needed to give it a try. Her first ACT was a fluke score (we felt) so she took it again and had great results . Without the fluke factor , she may have played the cards in her hand.</p>
<p>But as you said, their search doesn't involve a need for cash. Our's did and I'm sure web pages like Miami's colored our thinking.</p>
<p>This isn't inconsistent with curmudgeon, but I think it probably matters ONLY in the merit-scholarship derby. Those scores won't disqualify her anywhere, and I think better scores won't help her meaningfully at the most competitive colleges. On the other hand, what's the harm?</p>
<p>Just saw Case on the list. Case was another school where I felt D's award was positively impacted by retaking.</p>
<p>As I continue to think about this I think now that HOW the kid missed questions may be the decider here. If you can see a defect and feel confident that correcting that defect will give her a score more accurately representing her talents, then go for it. If you don't see a clear defect the student can correct then I'd take the ACT. If it's crap they'll never see it, anyway. Final Answer. Beep.</p>
<p>Given that many the schools combine the best components of multiple SAT sittings to produce one best score, it can't hurt to retake, if the boredom tolerance is there.</p>
<p>I would ask if the SAT scores she already has were the result of lots of prep work (i.e, this is her maximum effort) or if taken cold. If she didn't put a lot of effort into the test, it might be worth some time with a review book to gain some more points that would make her more competitive for merit money and upper-tier schools. If she's looking at Tulane, Case and Miami as targets (and I hesitate to call them safeties these days), all of whom give merit $$ (and this is why I hesitate -- they are likely to see lots of kids going after the $$), I'd go for it.</p>
<p>Like Curm, I'd say retake it if she wants love and money from her targets/reaches.</p>
<p>Jmmom, if they aren't talking about money, maybe they haven't done the FAFSA reality check yet. That might change their minds about the need for merit $$. ;)</p>
<p>And a perfect SAT won't get you into a school (especially if you only apply to minimal numbers of very elite ones). Son, with high numbers, was supposed to retake his Math SAT II, he hadn't studied for it the first time around, but ended up retaking the SAT I (don't ask, his choices, ancient history by now) with said results. Let her retake the test if she wants to, or not if she doesn't. I'm glad you have a good attitude, good luck to your D. Sigh, if boys would only put forth the effort girls do...</p>
<p>As of this year, we are in a new landscape for selective admissions. Judging by the results at my D's high school - the scores matter enormously at the top tier schools AND for the big merit scholarships at school slightly down the ladder. </p>
<p>Let it be her decision completely. If she wants to re-test, certainly do NOT try to talk her out of it.</p>
<p>How about suggesting she take the ACT instead? It's a shorter test, more straightforward and she doesn't need to report scores unless they're great. I'd suggest looking at a practice test in Science first, though. My son and many others got hung up in interpreting the graphs and lost a lot of time.</p>
<p>My son felt the SAT Verbal could be over-thought and that the ACT didn't play tricks. He had a V SAT of 760 and an ACT reading score of 36. I don't even know if that's a statistically significant difference, but a perfect score is nice.</p>
<p>Another vote for the ACT. As said before, some students perform significantly better on one test type than they do on the other. Only way to find out is to take the test.</p>
<p>If she is thinking of engineering at schools like Wash U, then she may be thinking of engineering at schools like Vanderbilt. There used to be a statement on the Vanderbilt merit award page that indicated that large merit winners generally have SAT I scores at or above 1500. The competition has only gotten stiffer in the last couple of years. Scores are not all, and there can be some flexibility on rank and gpa, but if they set a test score cutoff and you are 20 points below it, then that might qualify as an expensive mistake.</p>
<p>For admission: she's fine. For a big merit award (= free money), I'd retake once more to get the composite over 1500.</p>
<p>We had a similar dilemma - improving Mathson's writing score would make him eligible for at least one merit scholarship and he knew he'd made careless mistakes on the math the first time round. He still made sill mistakes in math and wrote a better essay, but got fewer multiple choice questions correct on the writing section. His second score was all of 10 points better. All he lost was a Saturday morning, but he might have been better off trying the ACT. I think he would have had a much, much easier time with the ACT style essay.</p>
<p>Look at the college acceptance data. Past 2100 the value of a higher score does not seem to mean much. It is the other stuff. I don't think it is worth taking over and it is possible to go down. I known people who have. My guess it that looks bad.</p>
<p>My believe since we started this 2008 season - get the bets scores you could. Admission is less test score critical but merit aid IS. </p>
<p>Our DD got into some of the best colleges with a decent ACT score but failed to win even one merit aid.</p>
<p>As a matter of fact, several CC'ers called me some dirty names when I pushed DD to spend sometime to study for her test to get a better score. I should have pushed harder.</p>