Advice for great student, OK SATs

calmom
Wed, 05 Apr 2006 21:58:58 +0000

Flatxca – my daughter was accepted at 4 reach colleges where her test scores were well below the norm for those schools. She had top grades and her applications focused on her areas of strength, and of course she had strong recommendations, good essays, & did her best to make a good impression at interviews.

Your son’s top rank will help if the class size is reasonably large. If he plans to continue with his varsity sport while in college, you should seek schools that will value his athletic abilities.

Colleges usually are fairly honest about what they value in an application; and that information is usuall available in the “admissions” section for each college in college guide books or web sites. For example, my daughter was admitted to the University of Chicago, which is well-known for placing importance on essays. On the US News College web site, it says that Chicago considers secondary school record, recommendations, and essay to be “very important”; Class rank is “important” – and Standardized test scores are merely “Considered.” My daughter applied early action, was deferred, then supplemented her application with a second essay and a writing sample, and was admitted – I am sure on the strength of her writing. Chicago would be a great school for a kid interested in journalism – so it might be a good one to add to your list. My daughter’s test scores are higher than your son’s - mostly because her SAT writing score was very high - but she chose to submit her ACTs rather than SATs.

However, she was also accepted at two reach colleges that say that test scores are “very important” – so you never know.

Don’t be deterred from applying to a score simply because of problems with the SAT scores – but at the same time, you need to plan well and have your son apply to a range of schools, including some where his admission is assured despite the poor test scores.