SATs Don't Relect The Student I Am

Chance Me / Match Me!
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<p>As many of you must know by now, SATs don't always reflect the type of student you are. Some great students go to take the SAT and are surprised when they receive their sub-par score. Their high hopes of getting admitted into competitive schools now seem like a distant reality. This is my case. Although I have been told various times by my parents, teachers and guidance counselor that some universities will make exceptions to low test scores I still wonder how true this is. I need your help and advice to see if it is indeed still possible to get into these selective colleges. What do you think...will some of these colleges make exceptions for me? </p>

<p>Colleges I am looking at include: Villanova, Lehigh, UConn, Marist, Providence, Loyola Maryland, Lafayette, Northeastern, Boston College </p>

<p>Stats
92.43 Unweighted GPA
School does not rank
1680 SAT Score
590-M
570-CR
520-W
SAT 2- 650 US History</p>

<p>Good public high school in northern New Jersey
Competitive students
Hispanic </p>

<p>I think I will have great recommendations from teachers who know me very well
Rigorous course load- mostly all honors and APs
APs- US History (junior year), US Gov and Politics (junior year), Spanish Language (senior year)
[My school only allows 2 AP classes a year]
AP scores-3 on Gov and 4 on APUSH
Honor Roll every marking period </p>

<p>Good ECs
4x Varsity Wrestling (Started since freshman year, Honorable mention all division junior year)
4 years of Class Office (freshman year president, sophomore-senior year vice-president)
3 years of Global Connections Club, Vice President (club that raises awareness for social injustice throughout the world and promotes education in third world countries and sponsored a school being built in Ghana)
3 years of Newspaper club
2 years of Peer Leadership (needed to try out for this selective club where juniors and seniors are assigned freshman groups and once a week at lunch we teach them lessons about being productive students, bullying, etc.)
2 years of Spanish National Honor Society
2 years of History club
2 years of Political club </p>

<p>Work experience- summer custodian at elementary school
(Very difficult experience, possible college essay about hard work, what it taught me, etc.)</p>

<p>Volunteer Work- volunteer camp counselor at recreation wrestling camp, Relay for Life, volunteered at camp for people with mental problems</p>

<p>I am a very motivated and hard working student. My GPA would have been much higher if I had done better freshman year, but I suffered from very bad anxiety which affected my grades that year. I might write about this experience in an essay. </p>

<p>Thanks for taking the time to read this...I hope you will respond, it means a lot to me!</p>

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<p>Why don’t you retake the SAT or try the ACT?</p>

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<p>@kandcsmom‌ I am retaking the SAT in October. Tried the ACT and didn’t do too well either :frowning: </p>

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<p>You have two months. I’d recommend you find a boot camp, and self-study, or find a test optional school. They exist. </p>

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<p>@kandcsmom‌ thanks </p>

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<p>Why not look at some top schools that are test-optional?
(Wesleyan, Bard, Brandeis,etc. )</p>

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<p>apply to tests optionals ---- NYU and U of Rochester have flex test plane
-----Wake Forest/Bowdoin is test optional</p>

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<p>@msoze @1325948‌ thank you…I know I have 4 test optional schools on my list right now (Marist, Loyola, providence and wake). but I’ll definitely look into the ones you mentioned. </p>

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<p>oh also American University in DC and Franklin and Marshall are test optional</p>

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<p>I didn’t know that about f&m…maybe I’ll look into those too…what do you think…do colleges actually make exceptions for low sat scores? For the colleges I have on my list that aren’t test optional…can I make up for the low score in other areas? @1325948‌ </p>

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<p>Just so you know where my comments are coming from, I’m a Northwestern University graduate, and I currently help students get into college.</p>

<p>Test scores are much more important than extracurriculars unless you are recruited into a school for sports. The reason why the SAT may appear difficult even for a great student like yourself is that you need to practice getting used to those types of problems. There are maybe 20-30 uncommon words that you should know. You have to get used to the tone of answers that they consider as “correct”. You have to know about a couple non-standard math questions types.</p>

<p>Here’s what I strongly suggest: buy the collegeboard blue book (other companies (Princeton Review, Gruber etc.) make their own tests which do not use the same vocab and exact question types.) Do one section at a time, check your answers, and try to find the commonly asked questions. In my experience, what a student scores on a timed Blue Book test is almost exactly what he scores on the real thing.</p>

<p>I’ve seen students improve scores on their own by 100 points per section just by spending the time to get used to SAT questions. Time is against you, but if you want this, it is possible to get your score up before the Oct test. Spend your time wisely, and you will thank yourself.</p>

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<p>Thank you…I will definitely take your advice! @nuey2007‌ </p>

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<p>Boston College is a high reach</p>

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<p>@APsooof‌ Yea I know…I don’t even know if I’ll apply…but it’s been my dream school since 8th grade.
How about Villanova, lehigh, uconn, northeastern? You think there’s any chance for me </p>

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<p>bump </p>

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<p>I highly recommend applying to some instate public schools as financial safeties. Although TCNJ and Rutgers are not safeties for you, they are both very good schools that you should consider. Good luck with this and DAP! :)>- </p>

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<p>Hey! Marist is a great school when it comes to admission because they don’t just look at your grades, but you look at you as a whole person. My SATs where not the best, but I sent them anyway because Marist doesn’t hold your scores against you. The other great thing about Marist is that they want you to send them things so they can get to know you better. I sent in my resume with my application because I felt that it showed me as a hardworking student who was active in so much in my school community. Marist is a great place to apply because they aren’t just looking for a smart student, but rather a student who is going to give back to the community! Good luck!</p>

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<p>^what schools don’t have holistic admission?</p>

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<p>I am a current sophomore at Marist College and I would love to try to help you out with this question! One of the main things that drew me to Marist was that it was SAT optional. I am not very good at taking standardized tests, and was worried that my SAT scores would not reflect all of my hard work in high school. However, I found that Marist really wanted to learn more about the person behind all of the numbers and statistics and really valued my extracurricular activities, grades, and volunteer work. It is great that you have been so involved in your school, both in academics and extracurriculars and all of these things will be very valuable to you when applying to college. While the admissions process and selection varies from year to year, it seems like you’re a hard worker and a great candidate for any college! Try not to stress out too much about your SAT scores because you have a lot of great things to put on your application that will definitely work in your favor. Keep up the good work and good luck with your application process! </p>

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<p>@menabus Thanks so much. I submitted my app to Marist and can’t wait to hear back. I ended up sending my SATs just because mine were higher than my school’s accepted average. Do you like Marist?</p>