So my daughter is a solid student, 4.4 weighted GPA and a 1470 SAT, 4’s and 5’s on the AP’s she has taken so far (Bio, Lang, Gov). She is not aiming for the top top schools but her top choices include:
Emory
Michigan
Tufts
BU
After that it’s schools like Lehigh, Maryland, Wisconsin, GW.
None of the schools REQUIRE subject tests, but some of them RECOMMEND them, whatever that means.
She is disappointed in her SAT subject tests, which are a 690 in Chem and a 730 in Bio (the E one, not the M, and I think E scores tend to be lower). She doesn’t think she should submit any of those scores. So the question is, submit both, submit just Bio, or submit none of them? She is pretty adamant that submitting only one score is foolish and it’s better to submit none- I have no idea why she feels that way.
I know Tufts, GW, and BU do not recommend subject tests, except for certain majors (mostly Engineering). I would not submit them. They are not terrible scores but probably not an asset to her application.
We were told that recommend really means take unless you have a good reason (mainly financial) for not taking. That said, my DD did not take them and was accepted at BU, Michigan, Rice, Wisconsin, etc. in Engineering. But, she had taken both the ACT and SAT and submitted both of those so many that helped. I personally would not submit anything that is not helpful to her application.
One comment I have in regards to your daughter’s list of schools, keep in mind when looks at admission data for large public schools (like Michigan and Wisconsin) that their in-state stats and out of state stats are totally different. It’s MUCH more challenging to get into those schools as an out-of-state student than it is as an in-state.
“One comment I have in regards to your daughter’s list of schools, keep in mind when looks at admission data for large public schools (like Michigan and Wisconsin) that their in-state stats and out of state stats are totally different. It’s MUCH more challenging to get into those schools as an out-of-state student than it is as an in-state.”
thanks, PrdMomto1. totally aware of this. she is really not expecting to get into Michigan based on her high school’s track record recently there- something like 60+ kids apply and only a handful get in. But I think she ha some solid safeties that she will be happy at (once she actually starts school…).
At some schools, “recommend” does mean “required unless there are financial constraints”, but they usually make that clear
I don’t recall that type of recommendation for BU, Lehigh, Maryland, GW or Wisconsin, all of which we looked at. Lehigh used them for placement, but not admissions (My D was accepted without taking them). A couple others said they’d consider them but didn’t require/expect them.
Emory says “encouraged but not required” - a little fuzzy.
Bio-E is 83rd percentile, Chem is 50th. I’d say submit just Bio-E or neither. I’d probably do neither everywhere but Emory, which would get Bio-E.
Well…according to the newly released USNews rankings, these are pretty top schools. I believe BU is the lowest ranked of these national universities at 40.
That being said…if the schools don’t require SAT2 scores, don’t submit them.
If Emory or Tufts were your top choice, an ED1 or ED2 app might well improve your chances. Your stats are good, but for all four of these schools, it’s a crapshoot. Many top applicants, lower acceptance rates. These are not safety schools.
The #1 contingency, however, is finances. If you haven’t had a REAL conversation with your parents about what they are willing to pay, that is the first order of business. FA is based on what the school thinks your family can pay, not what your parents feel they can contribute.
One of my sons went to one of the schools you listed, and I’m not sure I’d pay $80k a year if we had to do it again.
“She is pretty adamant that submitting only one score is foolish and it’s better to submit none- I have no idea why she feels that way.”
so colleges generally assume that if you take subject tests, you take more than one, since you can take up to three at one sitting. Submitting one means that the other ones weren’t good enough to submit.
My kid sent in three of his subject scores. He had six scores to choose from. He’d gotten a 670 and 690 on the SAT math BTW so he wanted as much as possible that looked better than that. It’s been a while, but he had a 790 in US history, so obviously that went in. Then I think he sent in one of his Bio scores (he tried both E and M and got 720 each time) and I think he sent the Lit score which was 700 or 710. Given that he had a lot of B+'s on his transcript, I think the scores likely helped him or at least were neutral. He got into Tufts, Vassar and U of Chicago EA (in a year when the EA acceptance rate was much higher than regular.)