SAT Scores for an Ivy League Applicant

Colleges and Universities A-Z Harvard University
1

<p>Hi...I feel...horrible. Please don't judge me when you hear my story. I've always been very competitive and ambitious, and I've always believed that if you work hard, you can do anything. But my SAT results, twice over, have made my world come crashing down, my hopes and beliefs. I'll be honest~I'm not a strong person. I don't know how to deal with stress at all. I cry easily. But I know how to study hard with passion and diligence. I studied extensively over this past summer for the October 2012 SAT, and I got a 2320 with a 720 in Math, 800s in Writing and CR, and a 10 on the Essay. It was devastating to me...particularly because of the 720 in Math. Perhaps if I'd gotten a more evenly distributed score I wouldn't have felt so anguished then. Anyway, I resolved that I could do much better, and decided to re-take in January. I studied really hard, balancing my 5 AP courses in school, maintaining As, staying involved~I was so proud of myself. I took the Jan SAT. I got a 2300. Last night. I'm still recovering. I had to skip school because I have no energy, no life in me. I got a 730 in CR, 770 in Math, a 800 in Writing, and an 11 on the Essay. Isn't it funny? The category in which I had always done so well on...all the practice tests and exercises and even the first SAT~I'd always done near perfectly/perfectly in Critical Reading. And that category diminished the happiness I could have had from the increase in the math score from 720 to 770; the essay score from 10 to 11. My score, overall, decreased; my CR score, plummeted. I have no choice now; I have to re-take.</p>

<p>Otherwise colleges will see my drop in CR as evidence that the first time I was lucky. </p>

<p>Honestly, I have no idea...what happened. I'm so bewildered. I feel like I'm dreaming. I literally pinched myself when I saw my CR score.
And before you say that I'm hysterical, exaggerating, crazy...please, please try to understand me. I've worked and spent countless hours for the goal of a 2400, twice. I'm intending on applying to a few Ivy Leagues, namely Harvard and Yale. I don't know what to do. I mean, I know I NEED to re-take now...primarily because of the CR score...but...I feel that I've studied to the max. If you knew me...you'd know. I've definitely gone to the extreme when it comes to studying for the SAT.
This is my battle plan: Take the March SAT. Before then, flip through the CR sections of a prep book for an informal, relaxed review to build up my confidence. That's it. Oh, and I'll purchase a copy of my test from Collegeboard to see what I got wrong in CR and also Math and try to learn from my mistakes...that's it though.
I don't know what happened. Did I misbubble?? I remember that I was very nervous...but nervousness shouldn't...couldn't...affect my score...that much, could it? </p>

<p>Anyway. I just needed to vent. I feel...like...death. If I could get opinions, suggestions, reflections, or maybe just some kind, emotional support, I would be very grateful </p>

<p>(i'm a junior right now)</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

2

<p>2320 is a GREAT score</p>

3

<p>Harvard et. al. superscore. From their perspective, your SAT is 2370. Re-taking the SAT AGAIN will only make folks question your wisdom or your sanity.</p>

4

<p>You asked for opinions. Are you kidding me? Stop it.I don’t want to get warned for saying what I really think.</p>

5

<p>Dude, kids all over the country would kill to come close to that score. Be happy with the amazing scores you have and don’t freak out about an amazing reading score. You’re gonna make a lot of people mad if you do.</p>

6

<p>You should be ashamed of yourself. How could you get such a low score? You obviously should have gotten a 2400 on the SAT on the first sitting without studying. Now you won’t even be able to get into community college. Have fun working at McDonalds. Yes, you obviously need to re-take, so I suggest studying the 100,000 SAT hit parade list so you don’t even second guess any of the answers for the sentence completions. For the passages, make sure to read at least 500 novels a week and write 10 page analytical essays on all of them to make sure you have a perfect understanding of all of them. For math, I suggest doing at least 10 practice sections of math every day. Don’t make any careless mistakes. For every question you get wrong, do 60 push-ups; for every question you leave blank, do 48 push-ups. How could you only get an 11 on the essay? You need to fill up the entire two pages with a professional essay with perfect vocabulary, using every word in its most appropriate context. Only give yourself 10 minutes so you’ll have enough time to finish on the actual test under stress. I have no critique of your MC score in writing, so kudos for that. However, you need to get another 800 in writing or else you’ll have to super-score instead of just using one sitting. Overall, don’t waste another second on this forum. Go get those 100,000 SAT words and get to work.</p>

7

<ol>
<li>If this is not a ■■■■■ I have lost all faith in humanity.</li>
<li>DO NOT RETAKE. You already look like an obsessive idiot for retaking once, and honestly if I was reading your file and saw 2 retakes on a 2320 I would reject you without blinking.</li>
<li>If you have nothing better to do than retaking a superscored 2370 on your weekends you are probably not going to get in anyway.</li>
</ol>

8

<ol>
<li><p>All of the above posters are not necessarily nice, or polite, but all of them are right. You should not retake the SAT I again. You shouldn’t have retaken it in January.</p></li>
<li><p>Here is a suggestion for you, one that I mean honestly and kindly: Do not apply to Harvard. (Or Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Columbia, Penn . . . ) It’s not that your scores aren’t good enough – of course they are good enough – it’s that your attitude is 100% wrong for those schools. </p></li>
</ol>

<p>You’re not a strong person? You cry easily? Your world comes crashing down because you don’t have the absolute top scores on a test? You have to miss school, feel like “death”, lose all energy, because you get a practically identical (great) score when you retake the test? The thing you seem proudest of is “know[ing] how to study with passion and diligence”? </p>

<p>All of that is a recipe for a trainwreck when you get to a college where you can’t possibly be the best student in everything, and probably not the best student in anything, and where what’s valued is not studying, exactly, or taking tests, but actual accomplishment. All of that is a recipe for a trainwreck if you have an application strategy that is likely to produce many rejections, even if there is an acceptance included somewhere. If you can’t toughen up and change your feelings almost completely, you need to stay completely away from the world of hyper-selective colleges.</p>

9

<p>I am being entirely honest here:</p>

<p>I think you should go into therapy.
A part of me is like you, and I don’t want to go into great detail, but let’s put it that way, it could have cost me my life.
If you don’t get into Harvard, what are you going to do?
If you fail your first semester at Harvard, what are you going to do?
The thing is: who guarantees you that not one day, you will feel like all hope is lost and “everything” is ruined, you are going to end it all.
Your perception if reality is distorted to a sense, and you seem to know that, otherwise you would not attempt to talk us out of calling you crazy.
What is important in life?
What makes you valuable as a person?
And what do you want to remember when you die?
The certificates on your wall won’t matter if your whole life has been a search to be someone, to prove that you are worthy, always chasing after the next item of your r</p>

10

<p>I would agree with JHS. You’re honestly, and obviously, an intelligent student. The difference between a 2320 and 2300 is…non-existent. Even the difference between 2300 and 2370 is negligible. </p>

<p>If you break down because you’re 80 points away from a perfect SAT score, then I must agree with JHS- you could not possibly manage the work load and stress that Ivy schools give their students, even if you got accepted. </p>

<p>My advice- if you truly are ambitious and competitive, then be ambitious and competitive with yourself for these next few months and make yourself a stronger person, one who is much harder to break. Forget about the SAT 1 now, focus on maintaining grades and being involved in activities you have a passion for, and pull yourself together. The ultimatum: if you can’t have that much ambition for your own self betterment, then you’re hope of surviving any Ivy League, if accepted, is small- very small.</p>

11

<p>Do the people offering advice to this poor soul really believe this is a serious OP?? You can’t be that gullible.</p>

12

<p>I really like the support CC offers buy someone has to see the real picture… 2320!? Are you kidding me? I dont blame you for your tired and devastated demeanor… It may be good for that community college down te road but an Ivy League? I will tell you what:

  1. Cornell would just glance at your form before chugging it away</p>

<p>2) Columbia and Brown admission staff may… I emphasise on ‘may’… just read your name and essay title before Venting their anger via paper shredders</p>

<p>3) Yale and Princeton will crumple your dreams into a ball and play Paper Toss with it</p>

<p>4) It gets pretty cold in Harvard and since they follow recycling and energy conservation, I have heard that they throw all useless forms which have SATs below 2390-3400 into the common room hearths.</p>

<p>5) MIT… Well lets just close it at the fact that they sometimes they run out of toilet papers and that they Dont mind “****ting with your form”</p>

13

<p>2320 is a great score. Top colleges look at your grades, sats, ecs and character as a total. I think that you should be happy with that score and continue to work on the overall appeal of your application. You should congratulate yourself with a score like that.</p>

<p>I happen to agree that if 80 points under perfect is a source of anxiety, then you are putting yourself under too much pressure. Number one it is not enough to be a major factor due to the holistic evaluation of your app. Number two, your success will be determined primarily by your effort over many years and not primarily by your College Brand. Finally happiness and success are different animals.</p>

<p>Good luck and keep us informed.</p>

14

<p>Equally bad: the idea that 2400 would offer some better chance at an Ivy. Been around long? It’s not all about stats. </p>

<p>No, we don’t think you are serious. But, in case you are: why haven’t you read the Ivy websites, learned what an admit is all about? Puh-lenty of 2400s get turned down. Sometimes, based on competition from the other 20,000-35,000 plus applicants and often based on…the attitude that shows in their apps. It’s not all about stats.</p>

15

<p>there are people applying with a 2050(me:D) to the same colleges…Have mercy:)</p>

16

<p>i think that 2400 is better than 2320, but it is not likely that those 80 points would be the determining factor separating a yes from a no. And I think the effort to chase those points could be put to better use in the context of a total application.</p>

17

<p>I need to thank the OP for creating this thread, I laughed really hard while reading his post and a couple of others :D</p>

18

<p>If this is a ■■■■■, wow, you put a lot of energy into your post.</p>

<p>If this is serious: Scroll back up and re-read what JHS and SophieIsabel wrote.</p>

<p>If this really is what you are like, Harvard – and any other similar school – will eat you alive. The suggestion of seeking therapy now to work on obsessive-compulsive tendencies is one to heed. With an utter lack of coping mechanisms and unrealistic expectations, you are positioning yourself for a great deal of unhappiness and long-term therapy down the road.</p>

19

<p>Pocahontasican’tgif.</p>

20

<p>Aspiring student: I concur. Plz see your school social worker.</p>