<p>So my daughter took the SAT's yesterday, even thought I felt that since she did reasonably well on the ACT (29, with very little prep), she should forgo the SAT entirely and focus on preparing for a retake of the ACT. She decided to take the SAT because, basically, everyone told her she would be crazy for not taking it (we live in the northeast), even though she scored in the mid to upper 600's on the sections of every practice test she took as part of her test prep. (Some CR practice tests were in the low 600's - She never broke 700 on any practice test)</p>
<p>I think she should cancel her SAT score from yesterday, because she would have to send them to Cornell since they are opting out of the SAT's new Score Choice option, and with scores in the 600's it will not help her application anyway. She, of course, is upset at the thought of having wasted so much time on the test and the prep, only to cancel the scores. I think the SAT prep will really help her for the English section of the ACT, and familiarity and practice will help her on the other sections next time she takes the ACT. (She had a 29 E, 30 R, 28 M, and 28 S) And while I understand the reasoning, I just don't think that curiosity about what she "could have gotten" on the SAT is worth the risk of having to send below average (for Cornell) test scores.</p>
<p>My older daughter/her sister, is a freshman at Cornell who only submitted her ACT score. Any thoughts or advice would be most appreciated!</p>
<p>I agree with you, cancel the scores.</p>
<p>If your daughter also has to take SAT II’s, then she will have to send ALL of her scores to Cornell including this not so good score, since Cornell opted out of score choice. The ACT is completely interchangeable for the SAT, and there is no advantage or disadvantage to taking it instead of the SAT.</p>
<p>If your daughter obviously shows a more proficiency for the ACT, by all means use that instead. Screw what everyone else thinks just because you’re from the northeast and that’s what northeasterners do.</p>
<p>I think your daughter would be fine with sub 700 scores on the SAT. I got a 540 in SAT writing and got into CoE. If she does better on the ACT, they will most likely disregard her SAT score anyway. If you want some reassurance about the impact of test scores in admissions, check the ED results thread for this year, in which a number of 3.95/2300+ students were rejected or deferred and also check the SAT IQRs for the college in which she is interested.</p>
<p>Thanks… I have to admit I’m still confused. My instincts keep telling me she should cancel her SAT score. Ironically, Tboone, her highest scores have been in writing, which for the SAT, is the least important. Her CR issues are with vocabulary only (which the ACT does not have), and math has never been her strongest subject, even though she does very well in her IB math class. (Yet 650-670 on practice tests). I think that for engineering your math scores are critical, so a low writing score is not so bad for COE. She wants to apply to Human Ecology as a Human Development major. She has very strong EC’s in this area, and has been focused on this basically since starting high school, and it is truly her passion.</p>
<p>scores simply make you competitive at schools like Cornell. it’s the EC’s, essays, and hooks that get you in.</p>
<p>My daughter took the SAT 3 times and the ACT 3 times. She had pretty low scores on her first SAT and improved a total of 250 points over the course of the 3 SAT tests. Didn’t stop her from getting into HumEc.</p>
<p>V670 M610 W610 1890
V670 M650 W670 1990
V750 M680 W710 2140</p>
<p>And don’t know if that gives you any comfort in your decision, just giving you fresh information.</p>
<p>She went from a composite score of 30 on the ACT to 34.</p>
<p>All scores were submitted since she had to submit SAT II and there was no way to send those without sending the other SAT scores.</p>
<p>Thanks for that helpful information 2011dad!</p>
<p>My daughter didn’t really plan on taking the SAT more than once. The plan was always to take the ACT at least twice, most likely 3 times. She has been preparing/studying for the SAT since around last August, so the likelihood of increasing her test scores dramatically at this point are rather small.</p>
<p>So to take the SAT once to get around a 1900, which is approximately equivalent to her current ACT score anyway, doesn’t make much sense to me. </p>
<p>She received a 28 on her first ACT math, but has been getting 31 on her recent practice tests. I can also see her reading and English scores going up as well, so a 31 is a strong possibility, and I could see her getting even higher scores.</p>