<p>So Columbia is my absolute first choice. I have visited the school & have fallen in love with everything about it -from the Core, to the diverse population, from the City to the campus. Everything! This my number 1.</p>
<p>However, I procrastinated on taking the Subject Tests, and must retake the SAT, because the first time I took it I got a low score (due to family circumtances)</p>
<p>I need to study for at least 3 subject tests, (althrough 2 are only required) & like I said before, retake the SAT.</p>
<p>I'm not so sure if I can make the deadlines in time for Nov. 1</p>
<p>I took a rough course load and my GPA and rank are high. My ECs are strong, my recommendations will be excellent, and my essay and personal statements are fantastic.</p>
<p>Also, I am an Hispanic female and the first in my family to graduate high school - coming from a family of 6 with only $30,000 income. (I don't know how my mother did it & I greatly admire her for it)</p>
<p>Seeing as how the only testing dates before November are October, I would only be able to take the SAT subject tests (& hope I scored well on my first try) AND send in my low SAT score....</p>
<p>But If I wait til Jan 1., I have Oct, Nov, & Dec. options available.</p>
<p>What should I do?!</p>
<p>I would propose applying regular decision to make sure that you could have more options for taking subject tests and retaking the SAT. If you just applied ED, you’d have only one shot at the subject tests and not being able to retake the SAT. If you didn’t do as well as you wanted on the subject tests, you couldn’t retake them under ED. Apply RD so you have more options to take the SAT and SAT Subject Tests.</p>
<p>I had a friend in a similar situation, who had everything ready except for SAT scores. She did wait until RD after greatly improving her scores, and was accepted. I’d advise you to do the same for the best shot at Columbia! Good luck :)</p>
<p>um columbia accepts the november test date. so you could do sat I in oct, and sat IIs in nov and be fine. what you do is just let columbia know that you will be retaking tests and that they should wait for them (an email is usually sufficient).</p>
<p>honestly this means unless you want to wait until the dec or jan test dates (columbia accepts jan test date for regular) in order to study more, there is no reason to not do the oct and nov test dates.</p>
<p>so why apply early?
a) you want to go to columbia, you’ve made that decision.
b) finaid probably wouldn’t be an issue, supposing your family doesn’t own significant assets, a large business, multiple homes. for families with typical assets making 30k you would def qualify for the complete aid package, where there is no family contribution, just a student part.
c) as i noted above unless you think some how your testing would be that much better if you took tests in either dec. or jan then all things being equal you stand a better chance being admitted early than regular. there are fewer students, you’d stand out a lot more. i guess another way to think about it - there is no advantage to waiting to take the tests unless you don’t think you can study for them in time, or want more time in between each to study.</p>
<p>the SAT to be honest is developed in such a way that if you prepare and study for it for about 2 mths, you should in theory top out. your score shouldn’t get much better unless your knowledge base somehow increases significantly. so let’s say you start soon, and take it seriously, take a lot of practice tests under real conditions, there is no reason to believe what you could do in nov. wouldn’t be the same as what you’d do in dec. (give or take a few points). so then you should just take it in nov. and apply ED if that’s what you want.</p>
<p>the biggest reasons not to apply early would be that you want to apply to other schools (you are not sold on columbia), or you are worried about financial aid. if your worry is you can’t take SAT IIs and retake SAT I, I hope this post has alleviated those fears, now you can make your decision without that in mind.</p>
<p>i should note that the other posts on here avoid the salient fact that columbia accepts the november test date, which is one of the OPs biggest concerns.</p>
<p>it doesn’t mean the OP must take the nov test date, she could decide to wait until dec. or jan. i personally don’t think it makes that much sense unless it is a work-life balance decision for the OP, it would require a lot of effort on her part above and beyond her school work to complete the two tests and essays and such to be ready for the application deadline. some students want to do it all in a big chunk, others might want to delay a bit and stretch things out - take a test in oct, one in dec, have more time to write their personal statement. </p>
<p>but supposing those are not issues, on the question as to whether the OP can retake the SAT and take the SAT IIs before the ED deadline, the answer is yes.</p>
<p>Admissionsgeek: you have been extremely helpful!
Thank you</p>
<p>any more opinions would be appreciated!</p>
<p>Just a warning, if you take SAT in November, you will have no idea what your score is that you are submitting. If you happen to do poorly again, there would be no more chances.</p>
<p>another thing to think about before making your decision…</p>
<p>Columbia will be accepting common app for first time this year…so a lot of people are expecting 2015 to be a really competitive admissions cycle. ED acceptance rate is higher than regular and shows your interest and commitment to school…something the adcom want to know to protect their yield…especially since youll have more people applying with less interest due to ease of common app.</p>
<p>Another thing is would you consider taking the SAT a third time if you got low test scores ? Just wondering …just try to push really hard to do well on SAT if you want to do ED.</p>
<p>Also why do you feel you must do 3 subject tests if only two are required? Seeing that you are only going to have one chance to really nail this if you do ED…it would be advisable to focus on the two you can do best on rather than spread yourself thin with three.</p>
<p>However if you feel that all this rush will have a really negative effect on your app…wait till RD</p>
<p>Just my humble opinion</p>
<p>Thanks Liz!</p>
<p>I realize now that it’d be better to focus on two.</p>
<p>another option for testing would be to take the ACT with the subject tests. I think columbia accepts the ACT (you should check to be sure though), and you’d be able to take both in October since they are separate entities run by separate organizations.</p>
<p>However, if you’ve never taken an ACT before, it might be harder to prepare and do well on it, making it a waste of money/time.</p>