<p>I got a 600 on the math section of the SAT and a 590 on the math subject test. The only thing is I finished with a 94 in AP Calc and got a 5 on the exam. Will this make up for my lacking math scores?</p>
<p>If an admissions officer doesn’t see your AP scores that wouldn’t be good, and they may be plain old confused by it. It seems that you’re good at math, so why not retake the test?</p>
<p>Ya that’s true</p>
<p>Take the ACT…the math is less tricky</p>
<p>When schools see your math grade do they compare it with students who graduated from your school and attend theirs?</p>
<p>No they do not. Schools don’t have the resources to keep a file on every single school they admit someone from. They factor in class rank some, but beyond that, your grades are your grades.</p>
<p>Math grade or math score? Ime, they compare your score performance to what they’ve got in the pool of applicants- and the expectations in your major. At many good colleges, an M600 won’t be a huge problem for a kid with an otherwise strong record, who wants a humanities major that doesn’t involve much math. They’ll see the AP 5 and be satisfied with that. But it would lower your competitiveness for STEM or other majors that rely on math skills.</p>
<p>It’s possible they would know the records of current college students from your hs; they do sometimes remember certain kids and can know patterns from a hs. But context only carries you so far.</p>
<p>Do they see how well students who attended your high school are doing in their classes and such?</p>
<p>Runmiles - please use some critical thinking skills for a moment here. There are something like 30,000 high schools in the US. Do you think that colleges are able to keep files on all 30,000 schools?</p>
<p>They aren’t privvy to college kids’ grades, but could have contact with that dept and know who’s shining. They do remember certain kids from certain hs, for a while- but they are kids who, for some reason, struck the adcoms as memorable. </p>
<p>Are you hoping they would say, Run wants STEM, has a 600/590 , but kids from his hs usually excel here? It all depends on the colleges. You’re viewed in context, but primarily compete as an individual. You’ll be Run, who got a 5 on the calc AP, but scored pretty average on the more generalized math.</p>
<p>Yeah they will. Just retake it.</p>
<p>Lots of students who do well in AP Calculus wipe out on the SAT general exam, and do relatively poorly on the SAT II exam(s). That is because they are out of practice with the kind of math that is covered in the other exams. Before you take the ACT or retake any of the SAT exams, sit down with a prep book and review the kinds of math skills that are covered in those exams.</p>
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<p>While colleges definitely do not compare you to other students within your school, all large colleges definitely do have the resources to keep files on 30k high schools (whether they actually do have such files I have no idea, since I’m not an adcom officer). Most of the Ivy League gets more than 30k applications (and those than don’t get more than 20k). </p>
<p>Adcoms open another file for every applicant. And I’ve heard that most adcoms use everything electronically now (meaning that anything you mail in is scanned and uploaded to your e-file). And they do this every year. </p>
<p>If schools can open 20-30k files every year, containing the common app, supplement, letters of rec, test scores, and transcripts, and then network these files to the online site that tells you the status of your application, I’m pretty sure they can keep something as trivial as a database with 30k entries, each entry with some info on a high school.</p>
<p>Again, I have no idea if they actually do that. But I suspect they do, if only to get a feel for the “rigor” of your high school. LACs might not have the resources, though.</p>
<p>To add on to what terenc said, some schools do keep records of high schools. And those that do not typically have very knowledgable adcoms that are very familiar with high schools that send a lot of kids to their college.</p>
<p>A lot of times, like if your school doesn’t supply a rank, the adcoms will indeed look at how other students at your school perform in terms of GPA and SAT/ACT in order to get a general idea of how competitive your stats are.</p>
<p>Best regards,
- Mike</p>
<p>I’m on the common app now and there is a spot for ap scores. If colleges don’t see the ap scores why is there a spot on the common app for it?</p>
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<p>30K applications doesn’t mean 30K high schools being represented. I think you guys are completely forgetting how there still are probably only, oh, say, 5K high schools in the country that have EVER had a kid send an app to an elite school. So yes, it’s quite possible to have a kid apply to an elite school where he’s the only kid or one of a few handful who have ever done so - in which case, what’s the point of a “database”? Joe Schmoe from West Tulsa High is applying to Harvard - and gosh, 5 years ago, someone else did, and 8 years before that someone else does. Why would Harvard “compare” those 3 kids?</p>
<p>It’s the school profile that they look at to get an idea - is this a high-achieving affluent school with lots of AP courses and the like, is this a working-class neighborhood, are there a lot of kids with free lunch or English as a second language. THAT’s the context - the school - not other kids specifically who might have applied in years past.</p>
<p>@Pizzagirl - The Ivy League schools all request school reports from your guidance counselors in order to view the student in context of their peers. So while there’s no “database” of high school info, that info is still submitted whenever an applicant from that school applies to the school. And if the high school is say, a top feeder school to the Ivy, then you can bet they’ll keep some data from it to see if the quality of students from that school has decreased from a previous year.</p>
<p>OP - why not just retake the SAT? Bring the math score up so that it would be competitive for a top school? But then again, you didn’t tell us which schools you’re talking about.</p>
<p>Wpi
Trinity college
Rpi
Ithaca
Washington and Jefferson </p>
<p>My schools sends a good amount to WPI every year. Intended major is biochemistry.</p>
<p>There are databases. Try googling a public hs you know and you should come up with community evaluations that parallel parts of the school profile. Adcoms have access to that, their own records and, for some, subscribed access to data they need. Plus, most of the year adcoms are researching and visiting their territories, getting a view of socioeconomics, particular hs standards, trends- and meeting GCs and kids. Not all, but they get a very strong sense of what’s up. Plus, they can pick up the phone and ask, if they need some other info.</p>
<p>And, adcoms DO compare you to other kids applying from your hs. And, they know when there’s been a period when no admits matriculated, etc. Or, when it’s been a while since they admitted a kid from your hs and the time has come. (I know, that sounds absurd.)</p>
<p>OP your problem is low SAT M with an intended STEM major, one that relies on math apptitude. Bring up the score or try the ACT. WPI/RPI (Rensselaer?) are a reach, but you could have a shot at those other schools, if the rest of your app is strong. What are your other stats- and ECs?</p>
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<p>Yes. IF being the operative word here. Believe it or not, there are more high schools out there than those that routinely send multiple kids to Ivies. Good lord, the world is not just elite boarding schools and super-affluent suburban schools.</p>