I remember reading a blog post by one of the admissions officers about standardized test scores and how MIT adcoms merely "glance" at them to make sure the student is "adequately capable" (or something close to that). However, I'm worried that my scores may not be enough. Am I rightly concerned, or should I relax? I don't want to come off to score-obsessed. At any rate, thanks for the input!
SAT:
800 Critical Reading
720 Math (Would my Math subject test score kinda "balance out" this score?)
740 Writing (Would my English AP score "balance out" this score?)
2260 Total
SAT Subject:
750 Chemistry
790 Math II
AP: (I know I can't do anything about these)
5 English Composition, Psychology, & US History
4 World History, Chemistry, & Computer Science A
You're just fine.
Really. You don't need a perfect SAT score. As long as you do well in class, and get around a 700 or above in each section of the SAT, you're okay.
Who you are matters more.
Who would be more valuable to a school? An antisocial shut-in with perfect scores in everything, or someone with okay scores who did something great for society?
I get where your coming from. Your not wondering whether your scores will get you in, your wondering whether they'll keep you out. I'm going to be paranoid about the same thing until march (or December hopefully)
Don't worry about it. Your scores are almost identical to mine (in fact, eerily identical). After I got in with the scores I had, I realized that I could have spent the time thinking about my scores doing something way more productive and intellectually enjoyable.
Your scores won't get you eliminated. That said, looking at the stats for the last few years, MIT gets 10 or 11 apps for every open spot, 1 or 2 of those apps are from not qualified people who can be easily eliminated. After that admissions team had a very difficult job choosing 1 student from 9 qualified applicants.
Since your parents are behind this, tell them that a parent of an MIT '15 says that you need a professional college admissions counselor. It'll cost them about $1000 - a fine investment to make sure you end up at the right school for them to drop $250,000 in four years.
This counselor will help you come up with a strategy for applying to and appropriate number of schools at appropriate levels. You may be totally qualified to go to MIT and the difficult statistics may just leave you out - but if you've also applied to a few other places that you've researched well, you'll end up somewhere awesome.
Then the counselor will help you with your applications. You don't want your parents to give you feedback on your essays, nobody does and they probably don't know how to write a winning essay anyway. A person who has education an experience in this area and no emotional involvement in it can give you quality feedback and dramatically improve your chances. This professional should know all about various deadlines and should know when you need to start in order to finish applications on time. You will get nagged, but it's a lot easier to be nagged by a pro that's doing their job than by a parent. Not having to nag you will be worth the entire price to your parents.
Oh, and I'm with the poster who says the school wants to know who you are. Your scores are fine. Let your admissions counselor help you present in th ebest possible way your art, music, sports, charity work, startup you founded at 10, church activities, whatever the heck defines you.
If you live in silicon valley then you want got-college.com
Actually, the main reason I'm worried about my scores *is* my guidance counselor. She said +750 scores are best (this was before I took the subject tests) and that's why my parents are pushing me to retake the Chemistry subject test. I'm gonna talk to her again this Monday now that I've taken the Subject tests.
At any rate, thank you for the information; I greatly appreciate it!
But I had a lot of other awards/EC's on my MIT application so that pretty much made up for the low SAT scores. Yours are fine, math is a little weak, but the admission is mostly determined from other factors such as the interview, EC's/awards, rec letters, etc.
DarthPars, I am really interested in physics and had indicated it as my major in my application, too. I believe that my subject test math score and Calc BC score balanced out the low SAT math score which really doesn't mean much in the light of the rest of your application. Keep enjoying your summer and feel free to ask questions.
