Our son scored a 2120 on the SAT last spring (1460 M+CR). He thinks he could raise that score, and he’s probably right. However, I’m not sure there’s any benefit in retaking. First, his GPA is a good bit lower than would be expected for a student with a score that high (3.3 UW). Second, he’s not planning to apply to competitive schools. He’s hoping that
Temple weights his GPA so that he meets the 3.8 cutoff for their biggest scholarship. That’s possible, since all his classes have been Honors or AP. His school weights it as 4.0. Since he’s already above the cutoff for SAT, I don’t know that a higher score on the SAT would help. I don’t see a higher SAT score helping at the other places he’s applying either (Ole Miss, where he’s almost assured of tuition +room for being NMSF; Drexel, which we could only afford if the NMF folks ignore blemishes on his transcript; University of New Mexico, where he doesn’t seem likely to get more that an out of state waiver with his GPA. Of course if he wants to pay for it he can do what he wants, but I’m not crazy about paying for it when it isn’t going to improve his chances anywhere.
I like that his score doesn’t “blow away” his more average GPA so he is fine without taking it. Definitely if Drexel offers their NMF package again, that would be a great name for no cost. Make sure to call the NMF office and explain a reason why there were some issues with his grades and then state it on the application. Apply early action and then wait for the NMF to be announced. Good luck!
@westnovasalle, the reason there were issues with his grades is that for two years he didn’t do a lot of the work in his English classes. There was no real reason except that he didn’t want to do it. He did get a 4 on the English AP exam, though. He says that if he gets the full tuition scholarship from Temple he’ll definitely go there unless he really doesn’t like what he sees when he visits this fall. He prefers an urban campus, so hopefully it’ll work out. He liked Ole Miss, and it would be his first choice if it were more urban. He said he’d be happy going there, though.