I appreciate your feedback. Much like you, my daughter has witnessed her older sibling work his butt off for exams and college admissions. He is an overachiever, but She is not type A like him. She is much more laid-back. Admittedly, my spouse and I have completely backed away from the SAT and ACT fight. It has become a non-topic in our home. It’s not worth the drama. I’m just concerned that she is really limiting herself by not taking the test seriously. As someone mentioned perhaps getting her a tutor, we have already gone down that road. She had someone work with her one on one, and it still did not improve her situation. She is thinking that perhaps the digital SAT will help her, but I think that’s just wishful thinking on her part. You never know.
If she is from a demographic where tests are expected, then an absence of strong scores stands out, but if she wants a more relaxed process that is fine too
What demographic was unable to take a test in 2022-23? I think that was an understandable argument early post-covid when wealthier kids were able to test and find open locations. But in the last few cycles the general consensus has been test centers have been open and kids are taking tests. Obviously there is no question that wealthier kids have access to test prep and the like but I do think the actual taking of tests has leveled out.
And along those lines, wealthier kids with savvy counselors know when not to submit a score. AO’s hate to see a strong candidate with a low test score - why give them a reason to deny?
She needs to understand the reality of TO and the trade offs she might have to make.
It very well might, because it has more time per question than the paper SAT.
Is she taking the PSAT in October at school? That’s digital…maybe you can get her to prep for that? At the very least, suggest that she become familiar with the online calculator Desmos if she will use that rather than her own calculator for the PSAT. (Calculators are allowed for all math questions on the digital SAT/PSAT)
There are T60 schools where 30% of applicants are submitting test scores. I think you limit yourself but may also limit yourself if you submit a 32 to those schools. It’s all just doing some due diligence.
She already said she does not want to prep for the psat. In fact, she mentioned she may not even show up at school that day. It’s ridiculous at this point. I don’t know how such an incredibly bright kid can be so dismissive of this exam. It’s almost as if she does not care about the SAT at all. It’s just not on her radar. At this point, I think she’s just going to have to do the state flagship, assuming she can even get into business or analytics without an SAT score. As Texans, she is already auto admit at UT Austin with her ranking, but I doubt she can get into business. It’s too competitive.
As long as she’s ok with the trade offs of not taking the test, I’d just leave it alone. My daughter also REFUSED to study for the SAT and much like yours, she turned it into a heated battle that left everyone in tears. She took the test once and got the below-grade expected results and just applied everywhere test optional. It wasn’t worth ruining our relationship over.
I agree. D23 graduated from a small private school where some of her (mostly white upper middle class) friends were accepted to NYU, USC, BU, and Notre Dame, all test optional. A 1550 is almost always going to help, but I really don’t think even a 1400 helps for an otherwise stellar student at most super competitive schools. Except for some STEM areas and obviously schools that require scores.
If you’re in Texas, would she consider SMU Cox? For the Class of 2026 only 37% of SMU applicants submitted scores and it’s a highly ranked business school.
I’m sorry it’s been a stressor for the family!
If she has a good HS GC, this is something to ask them. It makes sense to me, but I don’t have any data that support it.
Would she apply to McCombs or to Data Science in the School of Natural Sciences? That’s a key question for her. If she’s ok with data science, or with business at TAMU Mays or wherever, then leave it to her.
As long as she knows that not having a test score could have some consequences at some schools you have done your job. If she then accepts those consequences for a relatively more relaxed testing experience that is not irrational. IMO of course.
Did she get into a few schools? My class of 22 son applied to 12 universities, three test optional. The only three schools that did not accept him were the three where he applied test optional.
Her brother is a BBA scholar at the SMU Cox school of business. SMU gave him a massive scholarship beyond the BBA scholarship. However, he submitted a 99th percentile SAT score. Getting into Cox is incredibly competitive, and the average for the BBA scholars is a 1530 on the SAT.
She only applied to 3 schools but got into all 3 with substantial merit aid. My son was also test optional and applied to 9 schools — accepted at 6 and waitlisted at 3.
The submitted score average is 1530. But there’s a kid from my daughter’s class who is a BBA scholar at SMU Cox who I can see looking at Naviance had a 1320 so he was test optional.
If your daughter is interested why not ask admissions the percentage of BBA scholars submitting scores? Couldn’t hurt right?
I can tell you in our feederish HS, very likely such a kid would be told it is OK to just be test optional. The belief is whatever is going wrong in cases like this, it is not worth the anxiety and distraction. So the message is usually just focusing on keeping up the grades and everything else, and then go to a great college that will accept you without tests.
Now, I don’t know about your HS, your kid’s interests and ambitions, and so on. It is entirely possible there are some colleges at which adding a very high test score would make the difference.
But the logic above is basically: “So what?” You don’t know you can get such a test score. You also don’t need those colleges to go to a great college. So, rather than focus on that, focus on something you know you can do well that will lead to a great result, even if it is a different great result.
I guess the last issue is then whether you want to push her anyway for the possibility of merit aid. I personally think the same logic once again applies: there are other ways for higher-income families with outstanding kids to reduce their college costs than merit programs that require high test scores. So if that isn’t looking like a good path, fine, focus on the others.
D23 is not a test taker. She’s not really comparable to the OP because her GPA was 3.6-3.7 and she wasn’t targeting top schools. But she’s at Trinity U in San Antonio with a nice merit scholarship and was accepted at all 13 schools she applied to, with merit at all of them. She was given great money at Elon, Furman, Sewanee, Baylor, Miami of Ohio, U of Utah, and other lower ranked schools. Perhaps not where the OP is targeting but being test optional (and completely, didn’t submit AP scores either) did not hurt her.
Why did he not submit? Was this the same high SAT student?
He did not submit because he was at the bottom of 99%. I know that sounds odd, but it was actually under 1500. He thought that would eliminate him, so he did not submit. Of course, now we will never know. I just know that the three schools he did not submit an SAT score to did not accept him. And, he was a legacy applicant at two of them. Of course, now he is at SMU and absolutely loves it. So all of that is behind us. Now I am dealing with his sister who is a completely different situation.
Trinity is a fantastic school with an amazing business program. Great option for OP!
Whether going test optional (or a score in the “upper 1200s”) will impact her admissions is likely to depend upon where she is intending to apply.
One daughter used a tutor. They were very good and very low-key / low-stress. We only required a few sessions and I think that it helped a lot. Test strategy and timing is something that a tutor can help with. We used a local company. I am pretty sure that the entire company consisted of two tutors plus one receptionist. Someone I know is a former high school teacher who does SAT tutoring. She is also quite low key and can maintain a low stress level. Her entire company consists of her. If one tutor does not work out, then I suppose that the options would be to try another tutor or just go test optional.
To many students the most highly ranked universities can also be stressful. There are a LOT of very good universities, and a very strong student does not need to attend a “top 10” university or a “top 10” LAC to get a very excellent education. Even “top 60” is not needed in order to get a very good education. “Top 120 or so” has worked out very well for some people I know.
We have a similar difference between kids. One daughter is high energy and is fine with doing many things at once and staying busy. The other daughter needs some down time and does not deal as well with stress. The “does not like stress” daughter however did very well in high school and then did even better in university, and is now doing well on the job. Finding a good fit for her might have been a big part of this.
I think that this is the right thing to do. If your daughter decides to apply to a “test required” school then this will likely motivate her to prepare as needed to do well on the SAT. If she does go test optional, then there are plenty of good schools to consider.
I might add that the daughter who does not like stress did very well on the SAT with very little preparation, but then applied to schools that were all test optional. Then she attended a university that does not consider SAT scores at all. Her high SAT score ended up being completely unnecessary.
What state are you from? What type of university or college would she prefer?
I am thinking that she might need to find a short list of schools that she is interested in, and then look at them individually to see whether this issue matters for admissions.
I think that this is exactly right. This whole process is way too stressful for our students.