<p>My UWGPA is about a 3.8 with many honors/AP courses and my math SAT is 800, while writing is 710.</p>
<p>SAT II: Physics 730 Chemistry 790 Math I 750</p>
<p>I'm interested in either chemical engineering, biomedical engineering, or biochemistry.</p>
<p>Do you have any particular notion of why your reading score is that low?</p>
<p>It will definitely hurt you depending on what schools. HYPSM, Caltech, Cornell, etc will definitely take a look at that.</p>
<p>I’m not sure why I’m so bad at reading. I am definitely more of a math/science student though.</p>
<p>And what about schools like UNC, UVA, or McGill?</p>
<p>Because your going into engineering they will not look at that so much. The math score will outweigh that flaw. I am looking to go to UVA for engineering and I have ACT scores of math 35 English 35 reading a whopping 29 and science 31. The admissions officer said focus on the math for engineering school</p>
<p>We’re in almost the exact same boat. I have 800 math, 550 reading, and 710 writing. I am also applying to engineering schools. It’s really difficult to improve reading score. I hope colleges can look past it and realize that we are outstanding math students.</p>
<p>YES.
x10000</p>
<p>Even if you’re a math and science student, you’ll need to take and pass general education courses that include lots of reading and writing. This is especially true in the top colleges that interest you so much. Your scores may make admissions officers wonder whether you’ll be able to do the work.</p>
<p>590… ouch. </p>
<p>Honestly, if you can retake the test, you should go for it. You are so close to 600. 700 is better, but even low 600s will get your foot in the door to top schools.</p>
<p>kyle76: Have you tried taking the ACT? The reading section is much more straightforward without all the of the SAT’s distractor questions.</p>
<p>Either retake the SAT or take the ACT. Cause that 590 definitely will not help with top schools. AKA it is hurting you.</p>
<p>Thank you all for the responses, I really appreciate it.</p>
<p>I was just wondering because all of my potential majors are mostly math based, so I wanted to know if some of the better engineering schools would look past my one weak point.</p>
<p>I am completely fine with English courses in school. In fact have received a B, B+, and A as final grades in my three years so far. (All honors classes). I am just not so good at reading in standardized tests.</p>
<p>And I have also tried the ACT before and really did not like it. I thought that the grammar was harder than SAT and I did not have enough time for the reading and as a result I got a 22 for reading (ouch).</p>
<p>Do you guys think it is worth taking the SAT one more time? I have taken it twice.</p>
<p>And when I say top schools I mean competitive schools, but not Ivy League caliber.</p>
<p>ie UVA, NYU, UNC etc.</p>
<p>YUNGKHALIFA420 and RainbowPitbull…I’m just wondering, but where are you guys applying for engineering?</p>
<p>“I did not have enough time for the reading and as a result I got a 22 for reading (ouch).”</p>
<p>Is English a second language for you? If not, have you always had difficulty with the reading sections of standardized exams? Sometimes dyslexia-type processing issues can be very, very specific and jam up reading without affecting math. You may want to look into this because even for a math-heavy major there will be tons of reading and any help you can get now with sorting out your reading issues will also help you once you are in college.</p>
<p>Colleges have few apps who get 800 on math and 500s on verbal, so there isn’t a large enough reporting sample size to estimate how much it hurts your chances with much accuracy. When I applied to colleges several years ago, I was in a similar situation. I scored 800s on math and math II and near 800 on math II science (don’t recall exact scores), but only 500 on verbal. The low score did not prevent me from being accepted at highly selective schools. Instead I was accepted at Stanford, MIT, Brown, and Cornell. I expect that the accepting colleges gave the math and science scores more weight than verbal because I was a prospective engineering major, treating me as a specialist who excels in his desired field, rather than a well-balanced app who is pretty good at everything. You can form a well-balanced class with individuals that are not well-balanced. That said, yes your chances of acceptance would go up significantly if you had a higher score. How much of an increase is difficult to say, with so little info about the OP.</p>
<p>happymomof1, I’m pretty positive that I don’t have any type of dyslexia, but I am a slow reader. I have never felt like CR for the SAT was difficult to finish, but I find the time constraints on the SAT to be much harder to work with.</p>
<p>“slow reader” can have many causes, all of which are worth investigating. Sit down with your guidance counselor and your text scores and ask for help getting a formal evaluation for processing issues. A formal diagnosis will allow you to ask for accommodations in testing situations, which can make a big difference in college.</p>
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<p>NYU proper does not have engineering; PINYU (which is in the process of merging with NYU) does, but it is generally not considered to be super competitive for admissions (in [Polytechnic</a> Institute of New York University Admissions Information - CollegeData College Profile](<a href=“http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg02_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=102]Polytechnic”>http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg02_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=102) , the middle 50% for SAT-CR is listed as 560-660).</p>
<p>UNC-CH does not have engineering; do you mean a different UNC campus?</p>
<p>Data10 thanks for the helpful response. I am hoping that I can be in a similar situation as you were with the process. Congrats on getting accepted to some elite schools. Would you happen to have any more advice for me about applying?</p>
<p>ucbalumnus…I was just throwing out random college names that I believed were like “2nd tier” colleges. Thanks for the information though because I was looking into UNC-CH, but now I don’t think I will.</p>