<p>do colleges take into consideration the courses you have taken in alongside your SAT scores?</p>
<p>on the SAT i got 750 CR 620 M 540 W, but i was home schooled and took very different classes than the public school curricula. and i feel that the sat is testing you on what you learned in high school. and i know that is more that just that but it is a component. i only took algebra 1 and 2 in high school and there was a half year gap between algebra 2 and when i took the SAT. also i didn't take the standard english classes and focused on long essays, and found myself a little confused on what to do on the (very) short SAT essay. Will college admissions take this into account or just look at the raw score?</p>
<p>^The most important factor I heard was the transcript - grades and courses taken. Try taking the SAT again, or take the ACT. The ACT is more straightforward.</p>
<p>i was graded on a pass fail basis. i either got credit for it or not, so i don’t have grades from high school. i’m actually in college now and getting 3 A’s and 1 B so far.
so i guess they will look at that.</p>
<p>The MOST IMPORTANT FACTOR in college admissions is your transcript, i.e. the courses that you took and the grades you earned in them. Your transcript is the single best predictor (by far) for first year GPA, four year graduation, and final GPA in college.</p>
<p>The SAT and ACT are written by different companies and are based on somewhat different philosophies of what to test. The SAT is much less related to HS curriculum than the ACT is. The ACT is generally a more straightforward and less “tricky” exam. You may want to take a crack at it and see what you think.</p>
<p>You may also want to take a look at the list of colleges and universities that are at least partially test-optional. This is at [The</a> National Center for Fair & Open Testing | FairTest](<a href=“http://www.fairtest.org%5DThe”>http://www.fairtest.org)</p>
<p>Oh yes, that strange 30 minute essay on these exams? It only tests your ability to write that kind of essay. Which you will only ever write on the SAT/ACT and/or some AP exams. Lots of colleges/universities don’t even look at the results. Frankly, none of them should.</p>
<p>Good Luck!</p>
<p>thanks, its really good to hear that the essay doesn’t count for much in admissions. and i will consider taking either the act or sat again as it has been almost a year, but deadlines are approaching really fast for the schools i’m applying to. also my situation for applying is a little complicated so we’ll see how things go. thanks for your thoughts and advice!</p>
<p>Have you visited the Homeschooling forum? You may find some useful information there.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/home-schooling-college/[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/home-schooling-college/</a></p>
<p>As to deciding between the ACT and SAT, I’d suggest that you pop by your public library and borrow an ACT exam prep book. Work your way through a practice test or two and see what you think about the format. The ACT really is different from the SAT.</p>