My daughter is a Junior and took the SAT twice.
First try was 1470 - 790 math, 680 reading
Second try was 1380 - 720 math, 660 reading
I’ve been browsing the forums for the past few months. I encouraged my daughter to take it a second time to hopefully get a higher reading score and get a superscore above 1500. I do not think she prepped that much between tests. She seems to think you can’t improve by practicing and doesn’t believe she can do better. She does not want to take it again. The only problem is the schools she likes right now are all very competitive. She is in all honors and APs. Has a 98 unweighted average so I guess 4.0. Undecided major but science/math related. The schools she is interested in right now are Northeastern, Boston University and University of Michigan (OOS).
So would you try to convince her to take it again and how?
How. Well I hear that 15K will get some great tutoring by some guy named Singer*. Is that what you mean by how?
And no, I’d not have her take it over unless it is she who wants to do so and is willing to put in time and effort to study. Seems like a waste of time to me. Does not seem like the difference between getting into the schools she is interested in or being rejected would come down to a 40 pt difference on the SATs.
*joking
Her score is clearly going down so I would usually say no, however, as someone who just went through the college process you never know if those 40 points are what gets her into Harvard or Yale or what gets her denied. Motivate her but don’t force her, I just don’t want to see anyone go through the same mistakes I did which is to give up on my SAT and not showcase the strongest sides of myself on my application, especially with applications becoming increasingly competitive.
Just talk to her, if she says no, schedule a consultation (free one) with some type of admissions counselor near you, or what I did to motivate myself to study was to go on PrepScholar and input my gpa & Sat score, and then I changed my SAT score to one I would like, and seeing the percentage of acceptance increase, it’s motivating. Of course there is a lot more to her application then her GPA & Sat score, the best you can do is be supportive and try to sneakily motivate her.
Plan out a list of colleges with her or better yet if she has any ideas then look into those colleges. Google the average SAT score for those schools, and show her the 25% to 75% difference.
Having monitored the Class of 2023 “waves” of RD acceptances for UMich here on CC, the SAT average was 1,500 in the 2/1 wave and 1,475 for the 3/1 wave. The SAT score for EA acceptance would be higher for OOS.
The stats posted here on CC probably skew higher than the general population of applicant at UMich, but your D’s 1,470 definitely puts her in the “ball game” for UMich LSA, even for EA LSA acceptance depending on the rest of application and GPA.
S22 (Dartmouth) got 790 math, 690 English first sitting. Wanted the elusive >1500 score, and improved English 30 points, and matched his prior math score. Came with a fair amount of studying for the June test.
The most compelling bit of advice we received was from an admissions officer at a top LAC. While he was there, the “soft cap” for unhooked, not recruited, not from an unrepresented minority candidate was 1520. Don’t have that and you are LMO’s (Like Many Others) and need to really distinguish yourself in your essays.
And, I guess that is where my final point begins. The essays in a holistic review are EXTREMELY important. So are your child’s letters of recommendation and high school rigor.
If your daughter is not going to put the time in to improve her English to the point of achieving >1520, don’t take the test again. Many of the top 30 schools see the progression of scores, even though they state they superscore.
Try the ACT? The reading/writing moves faster but is also seen by many as more straightforward than on the SAT.
SAT tutor here. There is no point in her taking it again unless she is willing to practice. If she does not seriously practice, it is very unlikely that she will meaningfully improve her score. Of course, I am not sure how much improved scores will help at the schools you listed (don’t know their stats off the top of my head), but they would help at certain places. If you do convince her to prepare more, don’t have her worry about math at all. Have her focus her efforts on EBRW. A 700 is a good goal. A 710 would be even nicer (would give a 1500 overall). 750 would be best. If you want to force the issue, you can always higher a tutor. Then you can have someone make sure that she is practicing and learning the material.
Practice absolutely does help but a student has to be self motivated to do it. My daughter went up 5 points between her practice ACT and the real thing. If she’s not going to put in the work, you are facing an uphill battle.
The 1470 will be competitive at many schools.
FWIW, my dd was waitlisted from Mich (OOS) for engineering with a higher score, so even if your DD does improve her score, there are still no guarantees.
One point that she should consider is that not every test is scored the same. The scores are scaled based on the relative difficulty of the test. She could get exactly the same number of questions correct and get a higher or (lower) score. You never know what will happen. My son had far fewer wrong answers and saw his score drop 30 points. That particular test threw out several questions and scaled much differently than his prior test.
I would also have her consider the ACT if she does not feel confidant in taking the SAT again. His ACT score essentially equaled what he would have hoped to get as an SAT superscore.