If you really need merit to attend a school, when would you submit SATs and when wouldn’t you? Bonus points if you have been told this by an actual admissions officer at a college or if you full tuition or full ride without submitting.
My daughter’s current SAT is 1330. It is above 75th percentile at a couple of her choices (she’s only a junior). It’s killing me not knowing if this would be low enough to hurt her chances at a very large scholarship at a private university. For the schools where her SATs are below 75th I’m just assuming she shouldn’t submit. To complicate things she’s homeschooled but she will likely have 8 completed college courses by then.
It will vary by university. My daughter was offered a very substantial merit scholarship by a private university without submitting any test scores (in her case, it was awarded based solely on GPA, although I know you can also qualify for awards based on test scores). You need to check with each university and what they require for merit consideration.
Remember that for test optional universities, the published 75th percentile, and the median, are the 75th percentile and median among those students who submitted scores.
However, the students who submitted scores are usually going to be the ones who had the higher scores. This suggests that if only 50% of the students submitted scores, the median and 75th percentile as announced are probably higher than the median and 75th percentile for all students who attend the university. Also, the admissions and scholarship staff for a university are most likely smart enough to understand this distinction.
To me this suggests that it is probably worth submitting scores if you scores are at or above the published median.
I have had the same question and I have gone back and forth about this! I don’t think there is an easy answer. Mine have submitted some EAs but only heard back from a few, so no clue what worked. Mine are also seeking merit.
If my kids are below the 50%, then for the most part they are not submitting. Exceptions - if there is a school where very few submit and they are close to the 50% but maybe a little under then they might - depending on the school. And if there is a school where most people submit and they were over the 25% then they did submit.
We also dug back into past CDSs to see what the averages were when most people submitted. And then we crossed our fingers and guessed!
So far one has gotten top merit where their score was around the 50% mark (maybe a little over but not above 75%). But that was a school that is actively seeking people like that child. Which adds another wrinkle. Your kid’s major, gender, location, ECs, etc can play a part in merit offered. Also, my kids attend a strong high school and have high GPAs and several AP scores they reported. So
(Child also got top merit at another school, but they were way over the 75% on that one).
One other thing - if you read these boards long enough, there are anecdotal reports of some schools giving merit to the second tier of applicants. Some people guess that they assume the top tier is using them as a safety and they don’t want to waste merit money on someone who won’t come. I don’t know how much credence to give those guesses. But I mention it just to show that you can tie yourself into knots trying to second guess what the admissions committees are thinking!
Thanks for your thoughts. I wish this wasn’t such a guessing game. If you remember, please try to update when they get more acceptances to let me know.
