In my senior year of HS, I applied to some Ivy League schools and also to MIT and Stanford. Unfortunately, I didn’t make it to any of them. I was able to get decent ACT scores only after I had passed the date of the deadline to send the test. And for the SAT Subject Tests, my test anxiety overcame my knowledge I did really poorly on those.
I am very involved with a lot of good projects in Engineering in my current university and I am thinking about transferring to either Cornell or Columbia. My two best ACTs are a 29 and a 31, with a superscore of 32. I will have a GPA of about 3.75-3.8 by the end of my Sophomore year of college, when I decide to transfer.
Like I said, I applied to those schools before, so they probably have my old (and bad) ACT and SAT II scores. Should I retake it a couple of more time to get a better score on them (maybe a 33), so I can get a better chance to get into into those school? Or should I focus on something else, like my current projects and GPA?
Even if you did get a 33 ACT, your chances of transferring into Cornell or Columbia are lower than your chances were when you applied RD. Most private colleges just don’t take many incoming transfers so the odds are awful.
Not only that, but engineering tends to be in many cases a degree where your college won’t matter much after your first job (and maybe not even for that as long as your school is accredited.)
You mention that you’re involved in a lot of good projects at your current uni. Stay there and keep blooming where you are planted.
You would need to check to see if a college would accept an SAT or ACT (designed for HS students) when taken in college. I agree with bloom where you are planted. Look at the Ivies for grad school
Why do you want to transfer to those schools? Is it because the bragging rights? Your parents want you to? Honestly even if you got a perfect 36 on the ACT or a perfect 1600 on the SAT there is still a large chance you won’t be accepted.
I would not bother retaking those tests, and if you are insistent on transferring to an Ivy League for whatever reason, instead focus on your GPA and current projects. You said you are involved in a lot of good projects in the school you are currently at, why would you want to leave that, just so you can go to a prestigious school?