Crowdsourcing Score Submissions

Applying to College
1

Hello! I’m looking at a page full of scores and am baffled about which ones to submit.

My child is a rising senior at a highly selective/ nationally ranked test-in public STEM magnet school. Applying to geoscience/ environmental science programs at small to medium schools/ LACs (William and Mary in state, Grinnell, Oberlin, Kenyon, Rochester, CWRU, St. Olaf, Pitt, Wooster, Macalester), and will hopefully qualify for some merit aid at some schools. Not applying to engineering programs.

He took SAT August before junior year and May of junior year and got a 730 V/ 780 M and 740 V/ 770 M. So, I’m assuming both of those get submitted for a superscore of 1520 (740 V/ 780 M).

SAT subject tests:
800 Math 2
740 Physics (67%)
710 Lit (80%)
680 World History

APs:

Music Theory 3 (10th)
APUSH 4 (11th)
Calc AB 5 (11th)

Is taking AP Lit, AP Gov, AP BC in 12th (which is normal— it’s how his school sequences math). Not a ton of APs, because AP Physics 1 and 2, AP World History, 1st year AP CS, 11th AP Lang, AP Earth Science are not offered at his school. The school prefers its own curriculum.

So, which APs and Subject tests does he submit? I’m assuming Math 2, and not World History. But Physics? Lit? The Physics score is higher, but percentage (67%) isn’t great. But, he only had one year of physics. The Lit percent is better, but the score is lower. Does it it show SLACs a decent ability to hold his own in the humanities?

Also assuming APUSH and Calc APs get submitted. But music theory AP? Is it impressive that a kid in a STEM powerhouse passed the music theory AP? Or does a 3 hurt? Does not submitting show a glaring omission and make schools assume he failed?

FWIW, my kid want to continue playing music in college, and possible take more music theory. But not as a major.

So WWYD?

2

Ap scores of 4 or 5 should always be reported. Scores of 1 or 2 should never be reported There is debate on this site about submitting 3’s. My own opinion is that is will not hurt, particularly is in an area that is not going to be the college major. I also think that **not ** submitting a 3 will not hurt. So it’s really up to him. Is an AO going to be “impressed” that a STEM kid got a 3 in Music Theory? No. Many mathematicians are excellent musicians. So will an AP be disappointed that a STEM kid “only” got a 3? Also no.

As far as the Subject Tests, submit the 2 best. Submit the top 3 if he wants to show range (which IMO is overrated; they are not looking that closely at breadth of subject tests).

Don’t focus on percentiles. It is important to understand that for several subjects, the percentiles are depressed because so few colleges request Subject Tests, that the ones that do are the ultra selective ones. As a result, it is the high achieving kids taking the tests. No AO is sitting on the floor cross-referencing scores with percentiles.

Superscore policies vary by college. Most do; some don’t. I don’t have them memorized, so won’t comment on which apply to which colleges on his list. But there is no harm in submitting both SATs.

3

He’ll have the music theory class listed on the transcript, with the grade.

Agree, they aren’t hyperfocusing on breadth of subject tests. The bigger issue is when a kid wants stem an omits any stem SAT2s.

But your card is that he’s applying to a nice range of matches and presumably has other safeties. (We don’t know his grades, though.) And he has months to decide what to report. I’d spend the time and energy ensuring you know what those colleges value and look for, so he can make his best presentation in his whole app/supp package, showing what else they want, nailing any Why Us questions, etc.

4

@destination2020 @skieurope has summed it up pretty well. The only thing I would add is that the Lit test (as your percentile shows) tends to score lower so IMO, the 710 is a fine score and you might consider sending it.

As for the APs, in case you don’t know this, he can self report on his application the scores that he wants and then send an official score report only to the school where he enrolls. Again, as @skieurope commented, there is a lot of debate about whether or not to send 3s - I don’t think it matters much either way.

You should feel very proud - those are very nice scores!

5

Thanks so much for the replies. My initial reaction is to submit the Lit. Since he is coming out of a STEM powerhouse HS and applying to liberal arts, it helps to show he can handle the humanities classes. And good point about the AP Theory grade (an A) showing up on the transcript.

As for grades, 2 As, 2 B+, and 2 Bs in “core” classes junior year. But his school is notorious for grade deflation.

You’ve given me a lot to mull over.

6

Don’t worry about the grade deflation. That will be seen in the School Profile. Don’t overthink it. You have good recommendations above.

7

Not to add more colleges but my daughter goes to Beloit College and it seems like most of her friends are in https://www.beloit.edu/environmental/
. They seem to love the school /courses and there should be good merit for your kid. Lots of kids get merit and one of the reasons they are there then fall in love with the school.
My daughter is part of a food co-op there for dinners and lots of these kids partake. Good luck

8

Thanks Knowstuff! My kid has visited and lovers Wooster as a safety, (Also has visited and loves St. Olaf). And Wooster has Early Action, plus will do an early read on merit aid. But, if Wooster doesn’t come through on admission or merit aid in EA, Beloit and Juanita are two school he will almost certainly apply to. They both have great reputations! Also Earlham, although they seem to having financial issues.

We are trying to keep the college list to 10, but if Wooster doesn’t accept my kid in EA or offers no merit aid, we will need to recalibrate his expectations away from Oberlin, Kenyon, Grinnell, WM and toward Beloit, Juanita and Earlham— which are also great options.

Congrats on your daughter landing somewhere that is perfect for her!

9

@Destination2020. No problem. Actually she transferred their as a junior from another Lac last year. You have great school choices. Good Luck.