<p>Could achievements on a talent search (ACT/SAT) taken in freshman year be listed as an award on college apps? Would they have any weightage? (My hunch is they'd be pointless to mention.)
The other benefit of a freshman talent search is the obvious fact that you can feel a good score if you so get one.
However, if you get a bad score, I believe you can erase it. Is this true?
(I'm referencing the NUMATS, btw)</p>
<p>Bump 10char</p>
<p>I do not believe you can erase a score taken for a talent search once you get to ninth grade. SAT taken in 7th or 8th will drop off automatically (disappear), I am not totally clear on the ACT rules. But I am pretty sure in both cases that a 9th grade score stays.</p>
<p>Most students who test for programs like NUMATS do so before freshman year. But technically I think you can test in ninth grade, and if you did well I suppose you could list it on your college app. I am not sure it adds a lot of weight, though – my assumption is that if you score well in 9th grade, you should have great scores by 11th/12th (my kid who won a NUMATS award in middle school had a 2380 superscore SAT by end of her junior year, for example). And those great scores are going to carry a lot more weight than a NUMATS award in 9th grade anyway.</p>
<p>If the test gives you entrance to a program you are interested in (NUMATS course, Davidson THINK program, etc) then that would be a good reason to take it in ninth grade.</p>
<p>Freshman year SAT scores will not be purged. ACT doesn’t purge them either to my knowledge. If the student is applying to a school that requires all scores, that score will be included. We sent all scores for our son and we had preserved even his talent search scores, but that was our choice. Talent Search is not a significant achievement to list, in general. It’s just a score (and the colleges will see your child’s scores). Hopefully, there will be other interesting activities and honors over the course of the years of high school.</p>