Should i apply?

achiever · 11-07-2009, 12:00 AM

I m an international and i really want to go to Princeton.
But whatz giving me serious trouble is my SAT1 score which is 2180. M-800, CR-690, W-690.

My SAT Subject Tests score is 2360. M2-800, Chem-790, Phy-770.

Class Rank-1/325 and I have the toughest possible course load available at my school.
GPA- school does not calculate GPA but I have all A's.
Everything else which includes EC's, recommendations and essays are very good.

Do you think my low SAT1 score will keep me out of princeton. Or do I have some chance?Should i apply?
I am really stressed out because everyone on CC applying to elite schools seems to have 2250+ SAT score. btw, i intend to do engineering. plz help!

randombetch · 11-07-2009, 12:15 AM

Only 40 points below average, so I don't think it'll hurt too much.

achiever · 11-07-2009, 11:20 PM

bump...any other views plz?

austriangirl · 11-08-2009, 01:24 PM

i think there is no question wether you should apply. of course you should... im international too, took the sat yesterday, and even though i am probably going to retake them, mine will not be much better- if your profile is interesting enough (with let us say, really cool ECs) then i actually doubt that they look at the SATs so much. plus your subject scores are really good.
maybe you should try and boost your CR a bit, retake the test with more vocab studying? the writing score apparently is not that important, but there are way more people who have a full score in maths, thus they always look for people with high CR scores too.
good luck

achiever · 11-08-2009, 01:33 PM

I don't think my CR can improve coz i am not very good at English.
If they don't look at writing that much, then my CR+M= 1490. Is that not good enough?

randombetch · 11-08-2009, 05:46 PM

They look at writing. And I believe writing is a really easy section to improve your score on - do lots of practice problems involving grammar and come up with a list of essay examples you can use. I guarantee your score can increase by 60-100 points.

austriangirl · 11-08-2009, 07:48 PM

agree here. i did not want to say that they do not look at the writing at all- sorry if it sounded like that...
and you deffo can improve your CR score, even if you are not the best at english. i am not a native speaker and i just learnt my vocabulary. there are some good books out there, also there are world lists on the internet.
plus, improving in the writing section is really easy... just do a list of examples for some sample prompts and try to figure out what they want from you in the essay.

achiever · 11-08-2009, 10:10 PM

I cannot give the SAT again. I cannot improve my SAT by more than 30-40 points, regardless of what you people say. Also, i want to focus now on the application process(the essays and all) and keep my senior year grades up. Academics are very rigorous in my country and there is not much time i'll be able to devote to other things.

Do you think my class rank and SAT 2's cover up my low SAT1?

brunotl · 11-08-2009, 10:53 PM

I think - not sure - that it may also depend on your ethnic background. I remember when a Yale admission officer came to a program here in Brazil and told me that average scores of admitted international students tended to vary, and I'm talking about significant 500 points. I assume things aren't that different in Princeton. But it also shows that SAT scores are just a part of the whole process. They surely have prepared professionals who know to what extent your scores represent how good you are as a student compared to how did the fact that you are a foreigner - and maybe not used to the American systrem of evaluation and examinations - limit your perfomance.

Good luck with your application!

austriangirl · 11-10-2009, 12:22 AM

yh, if you dont want to retake it (or are unable to do so), just make sure that the rest of your app is really good... take some part of you that is really unique and show it to them... i think that is the best way to try it (its my way too), plus i think your grades might be more important because they say more about your work habits, and how you perform in classes... and i mean, your scores really are not that bad- it always sounds like that, but honestly, the american average is about 1500, so you did really well, especially if you are not native ^^
good luck *crossfingers*