What if I'm good at almost everything but SAT?

Applying to College
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<p>I am a rising senior. I am almost good at everything except my SAT......</p>

<p>You know it's hard for a international student's English to be as good as native speakers.
I am Chinese and I came to America 1 year ago, which means I have only lived in English-speaking community for 1 year, despite that I had learned English for many years in China. The English I learned in China is too easy, just like how Americans learn Chinese.</p>

<p>So I think I have made huge progress this year. I have no problem having classes or making friends at all. I can speak English almost as well as Americans do. However, my reading and writing skill is not so good. Reading novels or SAT passages are hard for me and I can't write persuasive essays. It's mainly because of my mother language is not English I think. Say, though I try my best to use English-to-English dictionary, I have to use Chinese to study vocabulary to some extent.</p>

<p>I got only 540 in CR, 580 in writing (mainly due to a 7 on my essay) but a 760 in math. (You know Chinese are geniuses in math) I will take another SAT in Oct, but I only expect to get 600 in CR and 650 in writing.
I got a 2400 in SAT subject test, which includes math 2, physics and chemistry, as most Chinese students would get.
I have a unweighted GPA of 3.65 out of 4, which is among top 15% in my high school. Usually 10% of students in my high school can go to Ivy League colleges every year, which means students at my GPA level can go to top 20 colleges. How ever, my SAT is too low for applying them.</p>

<p>Another important reason for my SAT is that I didn't devote that much time to it.
I'm a talented musician. I play piano very well and I compose and arrange a lot. I spent tons of time composing and arranging music. I got a 5 on my AP music theory with almost perfect score(as the model test showed). I have recommendation letter written by my music teacher instead of conventional subjects teachers. This summer I spent a whole month at Berklee College of Music summer program.
Admittedly, Berklee is my dream school and I will early action to it. It doesn't need SAT scores which is a good news to me. However, I need to apply for other conventional colleges because music is not my only talent. I love science and I make almost perfect score in my science classes, including AP chem. My GPA is dragged down by my poor English class(my only B). I would also like to major in astronomy or geophysics(mainly meteorology). I like economics and commercial science as well(I will have AP econ in my senior year). I'm so obsessed with landscape photograpy that I have really beautiful
photo albums.</p>

<p>Do these things compensate my poor SAT score? Am I able to become those minorities who are admitted below the average SAT requirement for a college because of, say, my special music talent?</p>

<p>BTW, if you are interested in my music and photography, click links below. If I want to show my talent in music and photography, what should I do? Also by sending them these links?(I know Berklee do welcome these links)</p>

<p>My music page<br>
Victor</a> Liu ???'s sounds on SoundCloud - Hear the world?s sounds</p>

<p>My photo album [url=<a href="http://xiangce.baidu.com/picture/album/list/0813b4d0d0ed07bc2ba5f823826c7ade7f0f5e9f"&gt;http://xiangce.baidu.com/picture/album/list/0813b4d0d0ed07bc2ba5f823826c7ade7f0f5e9f&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;??????(??)&gt;???_?????????&lt;a href="This%20Chinese%20website%20doesn't%20affect%20you%20guys%20enjoying%20my%20photos">/url</a></p>

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<p>Take the TOEFL. Almost every place you will apply to will require it because you have been here for such a short time. Your TOEFL score will help the places that you apply to determine whether or not you are ready to study in college.</p>

3

<p>1 - Your guidance counselor can put in their report that you are still learning English. That will help put your grades and test scores in perspective.</p>

<p>2 - Not all schools require standardized tests. [SAT/ACT</a> Optional 4-Year Universities | FairTest](<a href=“http://www.fairtest.org/university/optional]SAT/ACT”>ACT/SAT Optional List - Fairtest)</p>

<p>3 - You will likely need the TOEFL as happymom said.</p>

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<p>I had already got a 98 in TOEFL before I came to US, and next week I’m going to take another one. I hope I can get more than 105. Will that compensate the SAT linguistic parts effectively?</p>

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<p>I’ve seen people with mediocre test scores get into amazing schools dw</p>

6

<p>You can also try the ACT, which is different enough that some do much better on it than the SAT (and vice-versa), but is accepted as being equivalent to the SAT for admissions to colleges and universities.</p>

<p>[Berklee</a> College of Music Admissions Information - CollegeData College Profile](<a href=“http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg02_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=134]Berklee”>http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg02_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=134) indicates that Berklee College of Music lists standardized tests as “considered”, while rigor of secondary school record and academic GPA are “important” and interview and particular talent/ability (presumably music) are “very important”.</p>

<p>Even among other schools that are not test-optional, many give lower priority to standardized tests than high school academic record.</p>