<p>I know this is the kind of thread that can be annoying, so I apologize in advance. I ask because I suspect some folks here may have had the same issue. My son is a junior in a magnet program, and is a good student with good although not perfect grades. My guess is that his peers would think that he is a good student, but might not identify him as among the brightest. So here's the thing: he took the SAT in March and got 2390. Who, if anyone, should he tell? So far, he hasn't told any of his friends. He's concerned that it will just cause stress, competition, and hard feelings if he tells. On the other hand, we are wondering whether letting the information out might help him in terms of the perceptions that teachers and peers have of him, with respect to recommendations, etc. Plus, of course, a part of him would like for other people to know, for purely selfish reasons.
So, what happens when a high scorer reveals the info to peers?</p>
<p>Please don't be offended by this,but a high score on a standardized test and not high grades will be thought of as your son being lazy.</p>
<p>Hunt, my freshman son let his (8th grade) scores be known; it was a totally competitive thing on his part, and drove a kid (also with 8th grade SATs) who is into this whole competitive thing to retake the SATs in an attempt to best my S's score. S thought that was funny.... I'm sure that did wonders for his social standing (not!).</p>
<p>Anyway, regarding telling teachers who your son will ask for recommendations, he can do that easily when he prepares the dossier he will present to each teacher. So they know, but since he told them only to help them write the recs, not to brag. This comes across SO much better than telling them for the sake of telling them.</p>
<p>Re: his peers, he might not want to say, but he can just smile and say, "I did well on them and will not need a retake." They might then assume he got perfect scores on everything, but oh, well! :D</p>
<p>Congratulations to your son!</p>
<p>"Who, if anyone, should he tell?"</p>
<p>I hate to be insensitive, but the only thing he shouldn't tell his friends at school is that his parent was on an internet forum asking strangers if he should keep his SAT score a secret.</p>
<p>His 2390 demonstrates a capacity for critical thinking. Let him decide.</p>
<p>SOS has it right, at least in our experience. One of S's friends had an almost perfect SAT and wasn't in the top 5% or top 10% of his class. The kids in his class simply got confirmation for what they already knew-- the kid had not worked up to his potential. His mom regrets that he made that info public as it seemed to have a negative impact on his 'rep'! At the end of the day, it's nobody's business! Don't kid yourself--once he tells one or two, "the whole world" will know!</p>
<p>My daughter did very well on the soph PSAT and whent he reports were given out, the teacher made a fuss about her scores being the best in the grade. Not well received at all by other kids. We think flying under the radar is this child's best option.</p>
<p>We stayed mum about our D1's scores (except me venting on CC) because we didn't want to put her on a pedestal and raise everyone's expectations of her too high. We also didn't want a lot of hooplah about it because we didn't want her to define herself as a power scorer. We wanted her to keep developing herself in many areas. And our daughter said it would be really "lame" to make a big deal out of them. I don't think she told anyone except her BF, who also had ridiculously high scores.</p>
<p>The news of her scores came out when she was named a Pres Scholar candidate - her school put a blurb in the paper that referenced her 2400 and 36. The response has been interesting. Some students in her class pressured her to withdraw her applications to some top school because they said she would block them. Her GC assured us this was a myth. Quotas are at the regional, not the school level. This has turned out to be totally correct - 3 kids in her graduating class of 101 were accepted at Yale, 2 to Harvard, 3 to U Penn, etc. I am glad we did not disclose her scores when she was writing her applications. People can be really silly when in the throes of stress and competition. </p>
<p>Perfect scores are a real blessing. They are a huge help in admissions. But they can't do it alone. Your son doesn't need perfect grades. But he will need distinctive essays, great recs, and ECs that are interesting and sustained. </p>
<p>Congratulations and Good Luck!</p>
<p>Leave it up to him about whether or not he should tell his friends.</p>
<p>I had high scoring, but lazy sons whose grades were far below their potential. I did tell their teachers so the teachers would realize that my sons were lazy, not dim witted (something that one teacher apparently thought of one son who was carrying a D in AP English, but scores in the 99th percentile). </p>
<p>Sometimes teachers having high expectations of students can encourage the students to live up to their potential (Didn't work for my sons, though one --who loved school, but disliked studying -- seemed to feel bad about disappointing teachers.). </p>
<p>Whether or not they knew his scores, both of my sons' peers knew sons were very bright (peers can pick up on that very easily). Sons' high scores didn't seem to cause any problems with peers, most of whom were out performing sons anyway in the area that counts: gpa and class rank.</p>
<p>One son didn't realize how much his peers had outshined him until graduation, when he noticed that he was the only one of his friends with no honor cord or other recognition due to academic honors related to gpa.</p>
<p>You are speaking about revealing the scores to both peers and teachers. Peers rarely write recommendations, so you and your son need to consider what the impetus for sharing the info. is. I tend to agree with your son that sharing scores with peers is unlikely to result in something positive for him. He'll know if and when it makes sense to share the info. in the course of a conversation. Celebrate this good news, encourage your son to know that as the college process unfolds, there will be plenty of accolades to go around, some he'll be part of, others will involve different peers. Usually, SAT scores are sent to high schools. I think that on the small summary sheet you give to the teachers who are writing recommendations, you can list the SAT score for them to be aware of as the rec. is written. Many students prefer to set a tone of vague, quiet, purposefulness about their college search and it can serve them well when the tensions of apps and acceptances heat up. They can reveal where they are going when it makes sense, avoiding the pitfalls of not differentiating between close, supportive friends and the general curiosity/competitiveness/anxiety of the process. Deciding how to handle the SAT score is a good opportunity for him to consider how he wants to manage the entire app. process with friends. I have yet to hear a student say that they regretted not being more exuberant about their accomplishments with peers. I have heard students say that they wished they had avoided the "madness" and "flown under the radar" of some of their more complicated peers and parents.</p>
<p>Most high schoolers have a highly developed social sense: they know when to share and when not to share. Or, they are jerks. That happens too.</p>
<p>Re: effect on teachers, etc. This is a legitimate question. My daughter switched schools between 10th and 11th grades, and the new school was not completely accommodating about placing her in AP classes and the like. There was a significant attitude shift after the school got her 11th grade PSAT scores. All of a sudden, the administration was going out of its way to help her. Of course, it's hard to separate the PSAT effect from the effect of her daily presence and class performance, and her social absorption into the smart/ambitious kid set. But at the time I thought the test scores helped her a lot in the front office.</p>
<p>Just to clarify, he doesn't have bad grades. He has a few Bs in a magnet program. That's why I said his grades aren't perfect. There are kids in the program with perfect grades, of course, and we all know who they are because the all-As honor roll is published every grading period.
I will of course leave it up to him what to do. He is mulling it over, and is weighing the pros and cons. That's why I asked the question--he has nobody to ask. So far he has told people that he was happy with his score.</p>
<p>JHS is right about that social sense....my son doesn't even ask which colleges his friends have received acceptances at unless they bring it up first!</p>
<p>Ss' scores were high enough that they got NM Commended, so their peers knew -- whether or not peers knew their exact scores. Never heard of the scores causing a problem with peers.</p>
<p>It did help my daughter to reveal her scores to the teachers writing her letters. It energized them. They already liked her very much but learning about her scores just sort of lit a fire beneath them - they realized she was very viable at many top schools and so they really got excited about being part of her candidacy. </p>
<p>It might help your son psychologically to know that eventually his exceptional SAT scores will come out - it's just impossible to keep a lid on something like that all the way to graduation. He will get his glory for his accomplishment. In the mean time, it only helps him to be low-key about it. His teachers will note that, as well, and be that much more keen on doing their best for him. No one likes a braggart.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Please don't be offended by this,but a high score on a standardized test and not high grades will be thought of as your son being lazy.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Not true. I know people that have similar scores and they are completely lazy and yet have straight A's.</p>
<p>As far as I know my son didn't discuss SAT scores with friends, but he might have. Since most of his friends were also NM finalists or commended I doubt there would have been any issues of jealousy. I think he should play it by ear, if he's asked by all means tell, but otherwise keep mum.</p>
<p>I'd be inclined not to tell the teachers. They may well get the word anyway, but my main concern is that they might make their recommendation letters about the scores, when what the colleges are really interested in is how he contributed to those teacher's classes.</p>
<p>BTW my son got the highest PSAT scores in the school when he was a sophomore, it had the effect that his GC who was brand new to the school sat up and noticed him and ended up writing a very nice recommendation and I suspect lobbied for a couple of awards he received.</p>
<p>I PM'd you...but generally speaking, the kids know where and when it's safe to share, if at all. This applied to scores, college application lists, and acceptances, in S1's case. S shared scores with teachers when it came time to give them info for recs. There are often enough kids in magnet programs who do well that a stellar score may not be as uncommon as one might think.</p>
<p>When the list of NMSFs comes out, a general sense of scores will become clear, but the more kids at one's school who make NMSF, the less of a big deal it is.</p>
<p>I think your son will find that once he shares his score with a friend, it will spread all around the school and to parents. I think my son probably shared his score with one or two close friends. Well, they told their parents. Parents told other parents and so on and so on. Keep that in mind if he really doesn't want a lot of people to know. In general, I think most kids get a good sense of when it's OK to discuss their scores. I see no harm in letting teachers who are writing recs know the scores.</p>
<p>What we found was that the kids at my son's school who were in the high SAT cohort all eventually told eachother their scores. This did not happen until senior year. At that point they kind of rooted for eachother, and kind of competed. It was quite friendly - the school is Catholic and known for a "whole child" approach that discourages wild stressing over academic performance. But the kids did figure it out themselves.</p>
<p>In our case, the GC certainly found out his scores. It was a good thing. Then S told the teachers, senior year, where he had a relationship and they were cheering him on anyway. The ones who wrote his recommendations were obviously in this group.</p>
<p>There seems to be an organic path for the communication of these scores, to those who will hear them well, at the appropriate time.</p>
<p>There are many things to worry about so I wouldn't pick this one:).</p>
<p>I completely agree with mammall's posts. The proof of the wisdom of her view lies in the results of her D's college admissions. My D was also circumspect, and happens also to dislike being highly visible. She is modest by nature & by choice. All of those factors did play into her recommendations, as her teachers offered to me some of their comments (unsolicited), which included references to her character. Parents & students should not underestimate the factor of character in admissions -- when character is evident in the application and/or the recommendations. There have been some recent posts on PF from surprised families, regarding this. (i.e., positive stories). It has also been quite evident to me over the last couple of years, minimum, in reviewing some of the results threads over in the student forums. The tone of the results posts revealed quite a bit.</p>
<p>OTOH, I do not think Hunt is out of place is asking the question or should be made to feel embarrased about it. (Post #4)</p>
<p>At our school, the Naviance plots get posted as soon as results come in, which includes Early results, so my D was unsuccessful in keeping hers a secret for too long. At a small school especially, everyone knows everyone.</p>