<p>well yeah, but if your score is too low to get into those top schools without retaking it, what kind of chances do you have then? probably worse....</p>
<p>yeah as you said yourself he was "borderline" anyway... since those schools you mentioned tend to value SATs quite highly, that probably refers mainly to his SATs. his inability to improve even after multiple tries probably didn't go down well with those colleges. </p>
<p>or, maybe they were just irritated in general with the thousands of rejected applicants calling in to bug them about the adcoms' reasons for exercising their rights to reject people. perhaps they dug up his application and cited the first minor thing they could find fault with? of all people, never trust adcoms - they don't really want to be transparent about choosing who they like, and they have a right not to be.</p>
<p>When it was out of 1600 the first time I got 1020, second time 1080, and the third time 1190.</p>
<p>3 times should be max. don't be too paranoid</p>
<p>screwitlah: he actually improved buy over 200 points within those three times. he had slightly above the avg. score at Amherst and Dartmouth, and was in the upper 25% at Notre Dame and CMC, though I don't remember exactly what he got. He had outstanding ECs though, and a super high GPA, etc., which is why he called in. But I don't know, three times might be fine for other people. Admissions officers have actually told me though that they think that's a little obsessive, and "we'd like to see you doing better things with your Saturdays. Not to mention time spent on SAT prep and stuff."</p>