Hi everyone! So, some of the schools I am applying to say that the SAT II’s are optional/recommended but I don’t know if I should take them? My guardian doesn’t want me to since we cannot afford it and I am already receiving two ACT waivers and my counselor said there are none available or the SAT II. Please help a stressed kid out.
Hi, I have been through the struggle too. From what I have learned, SAT II can really increase your chances in getting into the college you’re applying to. Selective colleges usually see SAT subject tests as an important aspect of your application. Hope my answer helps.
I disagree. A good score may help slightly. A bad score may hurt slightly. But for the schools that recommend them, they are but one part of the package.
For the OP, the schools that made Subject Tests optional did so to attract people in your situation - applicants from a lower socioeconomic status (SES) can’t afford more tests and/or the applicants attend a HS where no students apply to colleges where Subject Tests are requested, and therefore, may not have received the best advice from a GC.
I would just get a second opinion here though. If you qualified for an ACT fee waiver, you, in theory, should dualist for an SAT fee waiver. View the eligibility requirements:
https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/sat-subject-tests/register/fees-payments/fee-waivers
If you can qualify for the fee waiver, I would suggest taking the Subject Tests, since most of these schools have such low acceptance rates, I think it would be a shame for an applicant not to do everything possible to strengthen the application. However, if you don’t qualify for a few waiver and can’t afford it, then unless you want to look for creative ways to earn money, forgo the Subject Tests. Good luck.
The story I have heard over and over—on CC here, from my own kids’ school counselor, and others—is that SAT subject tests were expressly downgraded from “required” to “recommended” for the reason the prior poster mentions, to increase access and applicants from poorer and more rural students. Elite colleges still expect the private college-prep high school students to take and submit subject test scores (our counselor said it was REQUIRED for kids from our school), and maybe kids from one of the big, college-prep machine public high schools to do so, but they honestly are not expecting everyone to do so anymore.
Subject test scores 700+ are nice if you have them, but they don’t make up for poor grades or bad ECs, etc. Just a floral icing decoration on top of the icing on top of the cake.
@holdenc12 I realize this is just one case, but my son, who just graduated from Yale, did not take any SAT II tests. My daughter, a rising senior in HS, also has not taken any SAT II tests. She may take the Japanese test in November, but that will be way too late for QB and/or EA. In my son’s case, he/we didn’t even know about them. In my daughter’s case, the timing of her study abroad program in Japan (March 2017 to February 2018), made taking SAT II tests during her junior year too difficult.
I wouldn’t worry about taking them.
Right; the plural of anecdote is not data. 
As alluded to in my earlier response, that is a reason why school’s made the “recommended.” Again, it probably would not impact the OP one way or the other. But for other applicants, “not knowing about them” would fly for a student from East Jabip High, but not from Stuyvesant.