SAT Score - To Test or Not To Test (Again)

[MWolf]

@inthegarden

Within Section C you can find the 25 percentile and 75 percentile SAT/ACT scores of the accepted class (marking the middle fifty percent of accepted students). If your student’s scores fall in the bottom half of the mid-fifty, assume that the school will be a high reach. Most accepted students with scores falling below the 25 percentile are recruited athletes, legacy children, children of mega-donors, URMS, or exceptionally talented in some way

I hope that you realize that this does not describe admissions to the vast majority of colleges out there.

There are more than 2,000 non-profit four year colleges in the USA, and there are about 80 colleges with acceptance rates below 25%, and fewer than 100 with acceptance rates below 30%. These serve fewer than 10% of all students attending a non-profit four year college.

In fact, more than 80% of all students attending non-profit four year colleges, attend a college with an acceptance rate of over 50%. Big name, well known universities like UIUC, U Wisconsin, MSU, VTech, Rutgers, OSU, Purdue, Penn State, etc, all accept more than 50% of their applicants.

If an applicants stats are in the mid 50% for a colleges with an acceptance rate of 60%, like UIUC, than that colleges is a match/target. If the acceptance rate is 75%, then being in the mid 50% makes in a likely.

So, for the VAST majority of colleges, being in the mid 50% makes it a match, not a high reach.

I know that many people here focus on the 50 or so “elite” schools, but that doesn’t mean that they should be treated as though they are the only colleges that exist.

@momartist14;d-2193776

Is 1460 good enough in the age of Covid? Or should rising senior test again (if possible)? (4.0GPA, 5.0HPA)

These would be competitive for >98% of all four year colleges in the USA, and would make 80% safeties (so long as they weren’t interested in applying for engineering, in which case that would be about 50%).

Does your kid want to apply for Harvard or one of fewer than 20 colleges which both have very low acceptance rates and for which this SAT score is below average, and the rest of their profile makes them competitive? In that case, it may be worthwhile to take the test again. Otherwise, it is an excellent score. For the 2020 SATs, it is in the 97th percentile.

Moreover, since most colleges are test-optional this year, not submitting the SAT is an option, and if the application is otherwise really strong, that would be a possibility, especially if taking it again will not work out.