Should I submit SAT Subject Tests if they aren't required?

Applying to College
1

<p>As the title says, if I do well on the tests, should I submit the subject tests to a school, even if the school doesn't require them? Would submitting the tests to a school that doesn't require them kind of counteract a lower ACT score, again, if I do well on the tests?</p>

2

<p>It never hurts to send subject tests scores, especially if they’re strong.</p>

3

<p>For the college in question, are they:</p>

<ul>
<li>“Recommended” for admission?</li>
<li>A way to fulfill some requirement for admission (e.g. proving foreign language proficiency without any high school foreign language courses).</li>
<li>Useful for placement once you get to college (usually for math or foreign language).</li>
</ul>

4

<p>but I can tell you that my son was admitted ED to a school that “recommends but does not require” SAT subject tests. He did NOT take any SAT II tests.</p>

<p>He called and talked to an Admssion Rep , who told him that he would only need to take the subject tests if he felt that his grade in a class was too low, or he got a low AP score that he wanted to show stronger in. Since he was 4.0 in GPA, and got 5’s on all his AP’s, he decided not to test. And since he did get into his ED choice he’s happy. </p>

<p>Not taking SAT II’s did affect where he applied - almost all the East coast schools require them, and so now he’ll never know if he would have been admitted to MIT or Princeton. </p>

<p>Good luck to you.</p>

5

<p>A UChicago admissions rep told me that subject tests usually confirm what they already know (UChicago being a school that doesn’t require any), and they said they really don’t care either way. Of course, this is only one school, and other schools may be different.</p>

6

<p>Like other standardized tests, the SAT subject tests mainly provide a check against variations in high school grade inflation and course rigor, though they are more specific to specific high school subjects than the “general reasoning skills” that the SAT reasoning purportedly measures (though the ACT is closer to the SAT subject tests even though it is seen as an alternative to the SAT reasoning).</p>