pinklam

Rice is my top choice school, and it is very likely that I will be applying there ED. When I visited, I believe they said something like you must submit SAT+SAT II's OR the ACT. Would you say students who don't submit the subject tests are less likely to be admitted? I don't know how I did on my SAT II's- my scores weren't posted online- but I really don't think I did well. I may retake them in October, but is it necessary? I have a 2260 SAT and 34 SAT, and I had planned on submitting both scores.

Thanks for any advice! If it makes a difference, I want to go on the pre-med track with some sort of science major.

pinklam

Bumping this! Would love some answers!

crazymomster

Find out what your scores are and if they are over 700, send them. If not, choose whether or not to retaike. Only you know the strength of your applicaiton. If it is otherwise solid and you aren't worried about something missing, then don't retake. If you need all the help you can get in your app, retake.

RedYellowBlue

I spoke to one of the Admissions officers when we visited last November. SAT II subject tests are important! It could a deciding factor since many applicants score very high on their SAT and ACT scores. He personally told me that they look at SAT II scores, and those students who score high in both a math/science subject AND a language art subject increase their chances of admission to Rice.

runallday4

I'm applying as a Math Major and my scores are:
-33 on the ACT
-760 on SAT II APUSH
-750 on SAT II BIO M

are these scores good enough? And are the good enough to get the boost from having science and humanities?

also, should I take math II this fall since I plan on being a math major?

RedYellowBlue

These are good scores and would report it. I would take the Math II. I will send you a PM.

pinklam

RYB, thank you for letting me know! I will definitely focus on the subject Tests then!

ellenp

I have a couple questions after reading this thread.

1. Does it help to turn in both ACT and SAT scores? Isn't one enough (the best one)?

2. If you take the ACT/writing, do you need to also take SAT IIs?

3. If a student takes the ACT/writing and the AP exams and does well on all of them, doe the student still need to take the equivalent SAT subject tests? Aren't AP exams evaluating the same material?

For some reason, I thought I read that Rice uses a formula to evaluate testing and that the formula is based on either SAT or ACT but not both. I could be totally wrong about this impression though - Thanks

runallday4

I'll answer the best I can:
1) It depends on the scores. Unless you've already taken both of them and gotten near perfect scores on both, I think you only need to turn in one. If one is better than the other then turn in that one. I guess it might help slightly to have both, but probably not much.

2) If you take the ACT then subject tests are optional. If you have good ones send them and they'll help, otherwise don't worry about it.

3) You don't need to send in the SAT II's regardless if you have the ACT. I'm under the impression that you self report AP scores when applying (so they have no way of knowing that you're even telling the truth), and thus they barely look at AP scores. They do test similar materials to the SAT II, but the SAT II does a lot more in the admissions process than an AP test, so if you can do well on one I think it's definitely worth it. I've had people tell me SAT IIs could be more important than SAT/ACT (this is an opinion).

I've never heard of this "formula". Did you read this somewhere? It's possible they recalculate your test scores into some composite number; however, they insist that they use a holistic process, so they definitely don't use a formula for overall admissions.