Yale actually gives a reason for why it requires all scores:
"Q: Some colleges will consider only my highest scores. Why does Yale require a full testing history?
A: An applicant’s testing history provides useful contextual information to the Admissions Committee. With a full testing history, the Committee is able to look at a student’s highest reported score on each section of the SAT and/or the highest ACT composite score."
Yale can learn a lot by how often you take the exams. For example, my son had one wrong on the math section and it was a brutal curve; he was kept from a 2400 by it. A lot of his friends wanted him to take the test again; he didn’t do so because 1) he had better things to do and 2) he thought it might be a red flag that he was score obsessed.
On the other end of the spectrum, would you rather be a passenger in a car driven by someone who passed his driver’s test on the 15th try, or someone who passed first time? Yale is entitled to expect that applicants will adhere to its rules. Would you want to start your relationship with whatever school you attend to be based on a bad faith application?
ETA: “exam taken way too many times?” I’m assuming nobody held a gun to your head and you knew how often you’d taken it.
My D only took the SAT once, but we did score choice because she didn’t want to send one of her SAT subject tests. So how does Yale know that you used score choice for the subject test and not the SAT, as Yale will only see Score Choice from the College Board? It’s too late now I guess, but I hope she doesn’t get penalized for “breaking the rules,” when she didn’t.
@hviewer score choice is allowed for subject tests, and she only took the SAT once. i don’t see how they’d think she was breaking the rules
If you are accepted, you must send in an official score report. If you took the SAT multiple times but only self reported a superscore, then presumably you would be “caught” and your admissions rescinded. In @hviewer’s case, since your daughter followed the rules, I wouldn’t see an issue.
@hviewer - same with my son. He took the SAT one time and reported his two highest subject tests. Fortunately everything was self-reported. I suppose if he’s accepted and sends his official score report, in order to send all scores we will have to include that third subject test (still a good score, just not as high as the other two). Or he can use score choice and leave off the third test. Which will he decide? Not sure but guessing he’d consider this a very happy dilemma to have!
Thanks @BKSquared and @JBStillFlying. I sent the official College Board scores with Score Choice already – I guess we should have self reported. I guess I can have the College Board send all scores, although at this point it’s probably too late (and the odds that she’ll get in is low). If she’s deferred SCEA, I will have them send all scores, even the lower subject tests. Thanks!
If she only took the SAT once and you used Score Choice for the SAT2, you are in good shape. There is no need to do anything. I would not send in the lower SAT2 score. At most if you are still concerned that the AO may think you used Score Choice on the SAT 1 score, you can note that as part of any update you send if she is deferred.
^ Again, however, @hviewer - your daughter followed the rules, so there’s no need to re-send anything. And if she does, I suppose she risks giving them all sorts of new information with those lower subject test scores. If I were in your shoes, I’d leave it as is.
TLDR: What BK is saying.
Makes sense. Thank you both again.
if we aren’t combining test dates to get a superscore do we still have to send all scores? Daughter took twice but one test had scores to give her her superscore for both SAT and ACT. So only self reported one date’s results for each test.
I don’t see where Yale was ambiguous. The word “all” is pretty clear.
guys yale takes into account your highest score only. sending lower previous scores won’t hurt you, but you have to do it. im surprised so many people on here didn’t send all of their scores. if you guys get in, you have to send the official score report, and they know you weren’t forthcoming with all of them in your application. do you want to risk being rescinded if you happen to get in?
Some of these posts are shocking. “All scores” has no other interpretation. Is there a critical number of applicants who are cheating on their application?
@dreamthief001 - could be wrong here but a few thoughts:
Yale believes that there is information in the score history. That implies that sending all scores could actually hurt. We don’t know because they don’t divulge the ingredients of their secret sauce.
Not clear that someone sending official scores would get caught on the score send. For instance, if - like @denipell’s kid - my best ACT was a single test and all scores were higher on that one test, I could just send that. ACT score sends are by administration -they don’t include everything on a single report. As for the SAT, I thought that while CB tells you that you are sending Yale SOME of your scores, Yale isn’t necessarily given that specific info. And SOME could mean that you left off a subject test.
Nonetheless, it’s very foolish to gamble with the instructions. Both ACT and CB know Yale’s score requirement. And they know you left off a test or two. Morals and doing the right thing aside, who wants to enter Yale as a nervous wreck that you’ll be found out? Hasn’t anyone read the Telltale Heart? Or watched the early seasons of Mad Men? LOL.
Morning, everyone. I have a question: I took two SAT Subject Tests twice and got extremely low scores. I did not self-report these subject tests on the common app. Would this be an issue? I was thinking that since subject tests are not mandatory, choosing not to self-report them would not be an issue.
I’ll add one more:
Yale says: “When assessing SAT results, admissions officers will focus on the highest individual section scores from all test dates”
https://admissions.yale.edu/standardized-testing
Trying to hide scores means you think they are lying, which is also what the applicant is trying to do - let’s be clear. If you think that Yale is lying about something that innocuous, then maybe Yale is not a great fit for you.
I’ll also have to agree that a Yale applicant struggling to understand the word “all” will cause as many eyerolls as “It depends upon what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is.”
So would it be an issue if I did not report them at all on the common app?
Yale does not require all Subject Tests, so if you want to admit some from the app, feel free. Ditto if you want to withhold from the score report.
That said, reporting <2 Subject Tests and its impact on the admissions process would be a totally different question.
@denipell You are required to submit ALL SAT I or ACT tests that you took to Yale - you cannot send only your best one, even if that test has your highest scores in both sections as you say…