<p>I recieved my SAT scores today. Sadly, the Critical Reading isn't quite what I was hoping for but I can't complain. Scores are: CR:710 M:720 WR:790 = 2220</p>
<p>I'm a Junior, have a 4.0 unweighted and 4.76 weighted GPA
My current classes are: Chemistry Honors, AP English Composition, AP Psychology, AP Calculus AB, AP American History, Spanish 4 Honors.
Past AP Classes: AP World History - 4, AP Statistics - 4
Other than that I have mostly honors classes and two credits of weightlifting.</p>
<p>I'll be 4 year varsity Tennis letterman as well as Captain and #1 on the team
Sophomore Year: Mu Alpha Theta, Spanish Honor Society
Junior Year: Mu Alpha Theta, Academic Team, National Honor Society(Officer)
I got 1st local and 2nd district level on essay contest as a Freshmen
Tutor for NHS and have several community service hours
I also have some other trivial extracurriculars under my belt that aren't coming to mind ;-)</p>
<p>Considering these factors, should I retake SAT to improve my chances for the following schools or should I be satisfied?</p>
<p>1) UC Berkeley
2) University of Virginia
3) Duke
4) Yale
6) Cornell
7) Columbia</p>
<p>You'll probably get into Berkeley, Virginia, Duke, and Cornell.</p>
<p>Columbia and Yale are difficult for everyone so don't be surprised if even a talented person such as yourself is rejected (if they can reject 2400 SAT scorers with 5.0 weighted GPAs, you aren't safe either.)</p>
<p>You absolutely need to retake SATs for most of those schools. The writing pulls up the total, but CR and math are weighted more heavily. You're looking at 1430 on the old SAT, an unlikely nonhooked top college admit.</p>
<p>suze is right. As things stand now, Duke, Yale, and Columbia are reaches. UCB and UVA are probably reaches as well because you're out of state. Only Cornell is a match.</p>
<p>Duke median M+V SAT is 1430, Yale 1480, Columbia 1435. Even with your 4.0 and strong ECs, this means you're just an average applicant for these schools, and you'd be competing with lots of kids with 1500 and higher M+V, 4.0 GPAs, and equally strong ECs. Higher SAT scores, of course, are not a guarentee you'll get in, but it would make you a whole heck of a lot more competitive.</p>
<p>I don't know where you come off saying Cornell is a match. It is an ivy league school, therefore it is highly unpredictable with admissions - every student applying to Cornell has those scores or better....especially regular decision.</p>
<p>Maybe I should have said "near match." Here's my thinking:</p>
<p>Median M+V at Cornell is 1390. TennisP26's M+V is 1430, 40 points above the median. Now, his V = 710 and M = 720. Cornell accepts 43% of applicants with 700+ Verbals and 42% of applicants with 700+ Math. TennisP26 also has 4.0 GPA, which means a top 10% class ranking and probably better. So, based on these stats, I'd say that TennisP26 has about a 40% chance of getting into Cornell. Still a crapshoot, sure, but not bad.</p>
<p>What do you think?</p>
<p>Oh, and I should add that a match college is not a sure thing. A match, in my mind, is a college at which you have a good shot.</p>
<p>I would say do some practice tests. If you consistently score better than you did on the real test, go for it. If not, I don't see the point; you certainly don't want to go in and get lower scores. People tend to score within a particular range, so it is possible to do worse if you happened to have scored at the top of your range the first time.</p>
<p>If this were the ACT I would say do it regardless. But the ACT has score choice.</p>
<p>Speaking of which, you might do a practice ACT and see how you do. Sometimes people score better on one test than the other. I'm a firm believer in going with the test you happen to do the best on (and if they are the same, sending both in, because they are slightly different tests and so would confirm one another).</p>
<p>other things I forgot:
780 on World History SAT II, plan to take U.S. History, Math II, Chemistry and German this year
and I would be a legacy at Berkeley</p>