My eleventh-grader has looked at both the SAT and the ACT and would rather take the ACT. Because Saturdays are dedicated to a precollege program, and because my child is dedicated to applying to conservatories, we would like to limit the amount of time spent on standardized testing. Is there any reason to take the SAT instead of the ACT? For what it’s worth, we homeschool.
Colleges will accept either test.
If they are applying to Conservatories (ie stand alone music schools not within a university), you may want to check their requirements. Of all the conservatories, as far as I know only Curtis requires the SAT, and as far as I know Curtis has no SAT requirements for admission per se, but having a low SAT may influence a borderline student (though to be honest, knowing what I know of Curtis admissions, I doubt it has much effect, given the high level required to get admitted there on the audition, I suspect personally it is rarely if ever used). In general stand alone conservatories only care about the academics if they are very poor, and while academic achievement could in theory break a deadlock between two candidates, my take is such situations tend to be rare, that basically the audition and a teacher willing to take the student decide admissions in probably close to 100% of cases.
In terms of music schools within a university, then the SAT or ACT will be a factor, for programs like U Mich, Indiana, Bard, Northwestern, Rice, USC, etc, you have to get admitted to the university as well as the music school, and SAT/ACT scores play a role in the admissions process. A large part of your question revolves around which of the tests the school accepts (many accept both, but some do not from what I recall) if in fact you are thinking of a music school in a university, not a stand alone conservatory. If you know the schools he is thinking of, easiest way is to check their website and see if they do, and what kind of scores are typical among admittees. As has been noted on here before in other threads, with music school admits (talking performance here), the academic and SAT/ACT requirements may be more lenient then for academic only admits, that there isn’t quite the pressure for the hyper stats and test scores that rule among academic only admits.
I think Curtis is the only school on the list that mentions only the SAT, and that did catch my attention; I am wondering if they use a concordance to convert ACT scores to SAT equivalents, but of course we always can ask them.
More specifically, I am concerned not about obtaining good-enough scores. rather I am wondering if anyone has experience applying to these programs as a homeschooler. E.g., I already know that USC requires three subject tests of all homeschooled applicants, so USC probably is not a school where my child will apply. Should we anticipate extra testing requirements from any other programs? Are any of them picky about wanting specific tests?
Thanks!
My son was homeschooled, though we did an online high school program. From what I know from the grapevine (a lot of music students homeschool) conservatories are used to homeschoolers and it probably won’t be that big a deal. Some of the more academically rigorous schools where they have a music school may be more demanding (in my son’s case, the school he did his online high school with was fully accredited, and he had a formal transcript, it may be more difficult with more traditional homeschooling). The best bet is probably to identify the kind of schools he wants to apply to, then check their website and/or talk to admissions about it. The other thing I have heard is that there are some schools who give homeschoolers a hard time, but that a lot of schools, including the Ivies interestingly, strongly encourage homeschooled kids to apply.
Yes, and there are some that appear to be unfriendly to homeschoolers that, upon inquiry, turn out to be receptive and cooperative. I still find that I am put off by some of the schools that say (on their websites) that they want GEDs from homeschooled applicants. We will ask about requirements as we visit schools, but some advance planning is needed to schedule testing, and I think we both want to minimize the number of absences from the precollege program.
This is just anecdotal, but in my own experience, schools that post stringent requirements about homeschoolers on their websites will sometimes be more flexible to individuals. In my state, one cannot even take a GED until age 18 (and most applicants are still 17 when they apply.) One of my daughters applied to an elite university (not for music) that required 3 subject tests from homeschoolers. She never got around to taking the 3rd test but was still admitted. If you find out that Curtis will accept ACT scores (I don’t see why they would not) please let us know, as that would be valuable information for others who are trying to preserve their Saturdays for precollege activities.
My D took SAT just for Curtis when she was applying. She passed the pre-screen and got a live audition that year so I guess it was worth it.
It would be nice if they would take ACT.
I am so happy to hear somebody say they would like to limit the time spent devoted to these tests!!!
My attitude with my third child was to tell him that practicing music would do more for his brain than studying for the SAT tests. Because all my kids have significant LD issues my youngest did spend some time working with a cognitive psychologist but it was not specifically focused on the SAT or ACT testing. My son did OK but not great on the testing. Ironically he is dyslexic and for some bizarre reason decided to take the SAT II in English Literature as he needed one SAT II for NYU. He had a gig the night before and was out late and did not study a single hour for the test. He ended up doing quite well on it. So go figure.
My middle child has significant LDs and test taking is a nightmare for him, even though he is extremely bright. He struggled with the SATs (fortunately got into a college that does not depend on SAT testing for admission) and He struggled with the GREs (which was upsetting as some graduate programs actually use GRE scores to screen applications). But he landed in a tier 1 graduate program and is doing extremely well in the program.
SAT and ACT tests in my opinion are just not worth the energy most people devote to them.