Should I take the ACT or SAT given my circumstances?

Transfer Students
1

This is my first post on college confidential. Anyway, I’m trying to decide if I should take a standardized test (ACT or SAT) or not. My situation:

I was home schooled due to an illness. I was behind academically, started out at a community college, and didn’t do well starting out. I was put on academic probation (and am off of it now). I took a semester off to contemplate how I should fix it and ended up getting my GED. (My community college only requires a placement test which is how I got into it). Now I’m doing better and am getting good grades (mostly As with a B here and there). For my GED, I only got college ready on English, but I’ll be taking social studies, science, and math at my community college (some next semester and some over the summer) to demonstrate college readiness. By the end of next semester, I’ll have enough credit hours that state universities will only look at my college. They won’t even look at my standardized test scores. As a home schooled student, this is great, because I’ve never taken the ACT or SAT. I’m not sure if this will help or not, but I’ve been running for quite some time and am now working hard so I could make it onto a division 3 and possibly even division 2 cross country team when I transfer.

However, one of the colleges I’m looking at is a liberal arts college, specifically Earlham. It seems like an almost perfect match. I looked at the transfer requirements. They ask for a high school transcript (I don’t have one from home schooling) and is a test optional school. I don’t know if they look at overall GPA or not. My dad suggested I take the ACT and I got the impression I need a score of at least 30, preferably at least 32. But after looking at the differences between the SAT and ACT, I saw the SAT may be a better fit. It might be a lot on top of taking a full course load at my college, working, and training for cross country. If I need it, I’ll take it, but I’m wondering if it’s worth it or not. Will it help me get in? Or do you think if I demonstrate that I’ve turned my academics around, explain the situation, and explain why it won’t happen again, that I’ll have a good chance? Should I give up on a liberal arts college? Do they have a preference between the SAT or ACT? I’m questioning if I even have the academics to go to a liberal arts college. I love my parents, but I think they overestimate how smart I am…

One thing people may suggest is an associates degree. In spring of 2019, I’ll be no more than 10 credit hours away from my associate degree. I’m already going to graduate a semester or two late and I wanted to take upper division courses while I finish my associates degree which wouldn’t be possible if I just stayed at the community college. There is a local 4 year college that would accept me (it’s easy to get into) and I could potentially take upper division courses there, but I’m worried it won’t transfer to my 4 year of choice. (I’m not keen on going to the local 4 year for multiple reasons).

Thank you in advance.

2

Your best bet is to communicate directly with the admissions office at Earlham about this. Your situation is very uncommon, but not so rare that they will never have seen it before. They will have ood feedback for you.

3

You sound like a very intelligent and thoughtful person who has worked hard to get yourself college ready.

I second happymomof1’s suggestion that you contact Earlham directly to discuss your situation. A serious, long-term illness will certainly impact your academics, and admissions offices understand this. What they want to see is that you have recovered sufficiently to be able to handle their school.

I think it may be to your advantage to take either the ACT or SAT (I don’t think it matters which one) if you are to be competitive for a good liberal arts school.

It is generally easier, if you have several credits from community college, to transfer to an in-state public university. If you do that, you probably won’t need either the ACT or SAT. Your community college credits are more likely to be recognized at an in-state school. If you go to an out-of-state school, you might find yourself having to start as a freshman and take a full four years to graduate.

Your cross country skills might be the hook that gets you where you want to go. If you are a recruited athlete for virtually any school, your chances of getting in will go up a LOT. If you could run for a Div. 2, you would probably get significant merit aid.

Good luck and I hope you end up where you want to go!