<p>Colleges & the Collegeboard are money makers. More tests?!!! At the direct expense of time, registration fees, & emotional angst. Nonsense.</p>
<p>I am getting out of this rat race. Many, many colleges are happy for our tuition dollars. An undergrad degree is a commodity. When my kids are in the real world how many potenital employers will know about SAT II scores or the name of many of the top tier schools? </p>
<p>When so much is competing for kids time to get into a good school; i.e. part time jobs! spring sports, volunteer, drama, and how about some FAMILY time??? Cutting the grass or painting the shed…But they expect kids to commit to more SAT IIs or SATs or ACTs .</p>
<p>Just another viewpoint. My daughter has high stats (ACT 34) will be NMS finalist, quite a few APs (and she tests well) plus many dual-credit courses. She’s applying to very good Midwest LACs, none of which require SAT 2s. She is, however, taking SATs in 2 weeks, even though her ACTs were strong because we suspect she’s an even stronger SAT-type than ACT_type. We’ll submit both scores to schools, even though they require only one.
She wouldn’t mind taking some SAT2s if I asked her to, but Jr year has been just insane, and I think enough is enough,
Curious to hear if anyone disagrees with this thinking in our case.</p>
<p>^Sounds good as long as she’s sure she won’t want to apply to schools that require SAT IIs. The head Admissions Officer at Grinnell comes to our HS every year and gives a talk about what selective colleges are looking for in a candidate. One of the examples he relates is that his D did well in both her SAT & ACT and sent both to colleges, he felt that sending both helped to reinforce her abilities as far as the testing component of her application and that it was a good move. Since merit is a factor, SAT IIs could possibly help her, but that could be said of any part of her application; you and she are the best judges where to call it good.</p>
<p>I think the most important thing is that people have the information necessary to understand how standardized testing fits into the college admissions process, after that, every kid and every situation is different.</p>
<p>You may want to have your son consider taking the ACT with Writing, because all colleges now accept it interchangeably with the SAT I Reasoning Test. For most colleges, SAT II’s are not required (but perhaps recommended). Even some places where they are required will waive that if the applicant has taken ACT with Writing (because it is more of a content test vs. an aptitude test).</p>
<p>One last consideration: Many schools have language requirements which you can opt out of only by achieving an SAT II language score of a certain level. If your S or D is reasonably competent in their foreign language, they may want to take the SAT II in that language to avoid having to fulfill a language requirement-unless they are the kind of kid who plans to continue their foreign language studies in any case. Remind S or D that they don’t even have to report the score if they do poorly, so it’s very low risk.</p>
<p>"At a college I visited with one of my kids – a college that does not require SAT Subject Tests – someone at the information session asked whether students who have taken these tests should submit the scores. The answer: “You can submit them if you like, but we’re not going to look at them.”</p>
<p>That’s the same info I got at the schools my S applied to. The colleges really don’t want more info than they ask for. </p>
<p>momofsonbird - I agree with some others that “enough is enough.” My kids may be willing to take them but it would be their choice and i wouldn’t want to spend the money.</p>
<p>I would really recommend that your son takes 3, I was planning on only taking 2 at first but then decided to take 3 and ended up surprising myself with 700+'s on all of them.</p>
<p>IIRC, all of the schools S applied to required 2 SATIIs and some required 3. He took 3, although not all on the same date. Most students find that to be a bit much.</p>