<p>oregon -- no, I have never seen a list like that. My knowledge on Northwestern is from the mouth of an admissions officer at an info session.</p>
<p>historymom, please forgive me for kidnapping your threat for a minute with this related question. </p>
<p>D has taken the SAT once, scoring in the 88% in math and 99% in reading. Her GC has advised her to take the ACT in June, (which D has yet to look at) and if happy with the score, submit that, as well, and forget about re-taking the SAT. If not happy, then re-take the SAT in the fall. Im not sure what to think. Good advice, or too much testing?</p>
<p>Not a problem: It depends on the schools she is looking at in terms of admissions and merit. Your scores as they stand would not only get her into but also get her merit at many excellent schools. If she is trying for something closer to perfect because she is aiming for a free ride or because she wants to get into a top 15 school. Retake both, see which are better and send those. </p>
<p>My girls are trying both and retaking because they are hoping to be admitted to a specific school currently (quite) a bit outside their score range and make themselves eligible for more merit $ overall. If either of my DDs had your DD's scores they'd probably do a happy dance around the living room and declare themselves done ;) As it is, after retaking both tests they will be done, re evaluate their lists and look forward to any number of wonderful schools that are in range. :)</p>
<p>My D found out her ACT score just this morning. A respectable overall score, but quite a range - from 24 for English to 33/34 for math/science. Would colleges regard this as a warning flag for not being very well-rounded? Personally, I'd be happy to have the testing over with, but she wants to take the ACT again to try to improve her score in English.</p>
<p>ChiSquare have you gone on collegeboard.com , plugged in her stats in and seen if she is in range for all of her schools? It really is a wonderful tool. I know one school your D and mine share and her scores as they stand seem to make that school a match. But if she is like mine and wants to feel more secure in her applications and make herself eligible for more merit $$ go for it, have her do some additional prep and retake.</p>
<p>Regarding the choice in sending ACT or SAT, the colleges will receive the SAT anyway. By doing SAT II subject tests, Collegeboard will automatically send all SAT scores. With ACT you can choose which to send if it is done more than once.</p>
<p>Historymom, thanks for that tip. I'll go play with it. Her high school has software where you can do something similar, comparing her stats to other kids from that high school who have applied and been accepted to different colleges.</p>
<p>I'm gonna go play.</p>
<p>historymom, thanks so much.</p>
<p>To be honest, I thought that she was done, too, because I believe that those scores are pretty indicative of her strengths. Although her tentative list does include a couple of top 20 schools, she is fairly pragmatic and thus trying to build a sensible list. </p>
<p>Whats confusing to me is the kind of lopsidedness that ChiSquare refers to, as well. Because D is at the top 25% of all the schools in reading but at the bottom 25% in math in a few of them, Im not sure what to consider realistic for her anymore. Since she wants to do it, I guess that it is not a big deal that she takes the ACT. Its her mother who needs to stop rebelling. :)</p>
<p>Good luck to you and your DDs!</p>
<p>Thanks! I think that we tend to think that the reading and math scores in that middle 50% reflect the scores of the same kids. In reality they don't. Say the range is 600-650 in Math. The kids whose score fall in that range may have had CR scores of 750 even though the CR 50% range may be 630-720. Am I making sense? </p>
<p>In other words a kid who has a midrange math may be top 25% in CR and have a classmate with a midrange CR who is in the lower 25% in Math. Many students may have both scores in that mid range but lots have one in and the other out.</p>
<p>Kids like your D and ChiSquare's D are common in high school classes. Gifted in skills that require one side of thebrain, less so but still solid in skills that require the use of the other side. It is less common to encounter a student who is equally fabulous in both areas. </p>
<p>Thanks for the good wishes!</p>
<h1>1 son tested well on everything, so he submitted both sets. #2 son just did not do well on the SAT. His first shot at ACT was decent - much better than SAT, so he focused a little harder and took it again in September last year and pulled up the score- those were the test scores he submitted. He only got one rejection and that was from a top school.</h1>
<p>Eek. I didn't realize that about the SAT 2's......so that horrible SAT score got sent out too........oh well, didnt seem to harm him too badly!</p>
<p>My son had lopsided scores as well. We subscribed to the premium online version of US News. It gave us some great breakdown numbers to work with. You can even see what percent of accepted students had SAT scores in what range. It helped us have a clearer picture of what his chances were. It also gave him an idea of what verbal score he had to reach for. Aside from his scores he also had fair grades so almost every school was a reach for him.
Where he did luck out was that he has a great math score and was mainly interested in LAC. For those schools he had the advantage of being male plus a math score way above their averages. His writing and reading scores were in the bottom percentages and it worried us. I do think if he had been female his luck would not have been as good.</p>
<p>If I subscribed now to US News like you did would I have access for a year or would it be best to wait until August to get the new rankings?</p>
<p>kitkat, don't worry too much about the SAT scores the colleges will see due to SATIIs. Colleges consider only the highest set (or superscore depending on the college) or the ACT if that one is higher. (ACT btw does not get superscored)
My D did SAT 3 times. The first one was horrible, but was raised by 330 points in her third attempt. That's what the colleges looked at regardless of poor scores in previous ones. She did fine and got into some top places.</p>
<p>historymom, you are being perfectly clear. Thanks. Although I know that standardized testing is just one piece of the admissions puzzle, I wish that I understood a bit better how these lopsided scores are perceived by colleges. Im going to follow Mom60s advice and make time to check out the ranges of the schools on Ds list. </p>
<p>As to US News, I think that if you were to subscribe today, your subscription would be good only until the next issue comes out in late summer.</p>
<p>Here' some hope :) - My scores were very lopsided, as well. My Math score (580) was about 200 points lower than my Verbal (770) and Writing (760) scores on the SAT and 9 points lower on the ACT. However, my ACT composite was higher than my overall SATI score, so I sent both. I can honestly say that I don't believe my Math subscores held me back at all. I wasn't really sure where to apply because my WR/V scores fell in the ranges of schools where my Math score was well outside the range. I decided to apply based on the higher ranges and was accepted to most of my schools, even schools where my Math score was below average. (At one of these schools, only 11% of the students had a similarly low score.) I also know that schools considered the higher ACT score over the lower SAT score because I received merit scholarships for which my ACT score qualified me, but my SAT was not high enough. I definitely would suggest taking the test again (try to get that 490 up!), but I really do believe that colleges realize that students have strengths and weaknesses and they don't expect that all humanities majors will be great in Math. Good luck to your daughters!</p>
<p>thanks cj That does help. My girls have been doing an online petersons.com prep. They will do another SAT practice test after AP testing is over then they'll use the xiggi method for the two or so weeks they have left. Curmudgeon told me that his D was able to bring ACT up significantly w/ about 10 hours of prep so that was good news too!</p>
<p>justanothermom I am looking forward to getting that subscription in August! :)</p>
<p>I also used "The Princeton Review's Guide to Cracking the ACT". It's a really short book with some tips and time-saving measures that I found very useful (especially for the Science section).</p>
<p>Historymom, have you looked over at the CC section on preparing for the SAT's? Maybe there are some tips that apply to your D's.</p>
<p>Also see the sticky thread if it's still there on the "Xiggi Method" which impressed me a lot. It deals with the issue of learning to take the tests by practicing them within a specific timeframe, as I recall. It might help improve their pacing</p>
<p>cj, thanks for the info. Although I'm sure that there was more to your application than test scores, it is really helpful to know that my D doesn't necessarily have to rule out a school because of her lopsided scores. </p>
<p>And thanks again historymom for letting me butt in on your thread.</p>