<p>My 16 year-old son got his SAT scores today, and he's disappointed. He got 2160 (710 in writing, 710 in critical reading, and 740 in math). He visited Penn and fell in love with it, but he's now concerned that his scores aren't high enough. </p>
<p>He's in the International Baccalaureate program, has taken the most rigorous courses offered, has straight A's, ranks 5th in a class of 500, and is a member of the all-state band. In short, everything looks pretty good except his SAT scores, which are okay, but not great.</p>
<p>Should my son re-take the SAT test?</p>
<p>hey…i am an international and i got into Wharton '13 with fantastic aid…i got a 2190( 660 cr, 800 math and 730 writing) and here i am…i didn’t have time to retake it but if ur son has time, i’d surely advise him to retake it once…it’s not mandatory; the most important lesson i learnt from the ad.process is that they need an individual, not numbers…so if holistically ur son is a pretty strong applicant(nobody’s a shoo-in at the Ivies), there’s no hard and fast rule that he needs to get a certain minimal score…</p>
<p>on the other hand, a high SAT score won’t hurt his application…so if he’s interested in retaking and is confident that his score will improve, he should retake it…hope i didn’t make it more difficult for u; am kinda sleepy so i m posting what’s coming to me without any sense of grammar or punctuations and what not…okay, enough said.! :p…good luck</p>
<p>I agree with Vandit completely, I think if your son is truly distraught with his numbers and has the time to take it again, then he might consider doing so but it’s not really mandatory. I’m also an international, I got into the College of Arts and Sciences class of 2013 and I had 2170 on the SAT. I’m doing the full IB diploma as well so I know what it entails, it’s a tough program and almost ensures that your son will get respectable amounts of ECs through the CAS requirement, as well as a solid, well-rounded base with the infamous Hexagon structure, not to mention ToK and EE and all the other stuff that ends up driving us IB kids insane. Holistically, your son will probably be well rounded with good stats and an IB diploma to his name, and don’t let him forget that numbers aren’t the only thing that matter to adcoms. I wish him all the best :D</p>
<p>Thanks for the insight.</p>
<p>To be honest, even though those are good numbers (minus the minor SAT blemish), you have to realize that every single applicant who applies to Penn will have at least those credentials.</p>
<p>Is your son applying to Wharton? If he is, then hopefully, he has either a lot of leadership or a very strong leadership experience.</p>
<p>If he is applying to the college, then those numbers are not too bad. Penn is an Ivy League that doesn’t stress on purely academics. As long as you bring out your personality, they will like you.</p>