Should I take the SAT again or Subject tests?

Hi. I am a current senior looking to apply early decision to Penn.

My current SAT score is 2050 (710 CR, 730 M, 610 WR, 8 essay). Through my prep I have found my score to be somewhere in the range of 2180-2220. I was planning on taking the SAT last saturday (October 3rd) but I was extremely sick and had to go to the hospital. So now I am stuck. I feel I need to improve my SAT socres, but Penn also “recommends” subject tests. Which basically means I need to have them. I only have November to do it, so should I retake the SAT, completely not doing the subject tests, or should I take the subject tests and hope my SAT scores are enough?

Thanks for any and all responses ahead of time.

First of all, hope you’re feeling better - get well soon.

Could you potentially take the Subject Tests on the November testing date, and take the ACT instead of the General SAT? Or apply to Penn regular decision and take both the Subject Tests and the General SAT again? I realize this isn’t really answering your question: I just feel both of the options you have suggested are not ideal. (By the way, I’m just another senior so I could well be completely wrong!)

^Good advice/questions

First, thanks for that.

Second, the last ACT they accept for early decision is October 24th, but the deadline and the late deadline have already passed. Also, I plan on taking both the SAT again and the subject tests, but I can only take one for ED. If I don’t get accepted ED they will put me through the regular decision as well. So yeah. At some point if I don’t get accepted ED they will have both an improved SAT and the subject tests, but I know applying ED has a much better acceptance rate (10% to 25% I believe).

Penn also outright reject a significant number of their early applicants though, which is something to consider.

Also realise that the ED pool tends to be stronger, includes most recruited athletes and practically all legacies (Penn says they only give legacy preference to those who apply ED). There’s a slight boost but probably not as significant as you might think.

@sansculottes makes a lot of good points on this thread. Based on them, I would suggest that you should not apply to UP early.

Applying regular may not be as bad as you think; the early round includes recruited athletes, important alumni, developmental cases, etc that are guaranteed admission. When you take them out of the pool, the admissions rate for ED is probably not that different than RD.