Did atrocious on the SAT; SAT Optional Suggestions?

early_college · February 26, 2011, 3:29pm

I ALWAYS finish tests on time in school, and my anxiety has gotten a lot better. I can control it now. I don’t stress half as much as I use to.

jym626 · February 26, 2011, 3:31pm

Thats is not consistent with what you said about your recent ACT exam…
And if your anxiety is better and you finish tests, why are you still struggling as much as you describe? Please think about that.

early_college · February 26, 2011, 3:36pm

I didn’t finish some questions on the ACT on two sections. I finished everything on the SAT and in school. I didn’t study for the ACT, so that’s probably why. I wanted to take the SAT/ACT, and study a lot more the 2nd time around. My friends are doing the same thing, and my friends also didn’t finish every section.

I do not see how I am “struggling”. I have trouble with physics and APUSH. There were only two B’s in my APUSH class. My grade was normal for the class. I had the second highest grade in language arts last semester.

jym626 · February 26, 2011, 3:53pm

Re-read post#41. With only one AP this year you should be sailing through classes. If you are in a school where many students take no AP classes, you should be in the top decile of your class. And please dont tell us their grades are higher because they arent taking challenging classes. Is your 3.4 unweighted or weighted?

early_college · February 26, 2011, 3:56pm

I am not doing bad in any of my classes. I received 3 A’s and 3 B’s, I wouldn’t call that bad. I just looked it up: 26% of students take at least one AP class.

Joan52 · February 26, 2011, 3:58pm

I read through your entire thread. I wish my junior son had as much work ethic and gumption as you do…

That said, why don’t you look into SUNY Purchase? It’s very close to NYC, it’s a lot less costly (even for an out-of-state student) than Sarah Lawrence and your SATs combined with your GPA would not put you out of the running there. If you are in to acting and theater, you can do a lot worse than Purchase. I believe you have to audition and/or submit a tape or portfolio but if drama is your thing, that might be better than all this struggling over SAT’s.

One of my daughter’s friends goes there - he’s incredibly musically talented as a singer and a musician and he loves it. My daughter looked at it for herself but is at a different SUNY studying special ed and music. Purchase doesn’t offer education as a major.

Good luck to you. My son is taking the March SAT and the April ACT. I wish he would study, but he won’t.

early_college · February 26, 2011, 4:03pm

Thanks Joan. I will check SUNY Purchase out. I have considered SUNY New Paltz before as well. I am not interested in a BFA in drama, although they have one of the top BFA programs in the US. Purchase offers a journalism major though.

jym626 · February 26, 2011, 4:09pm

SUNY Purchase is a good thought- though I thought it was more of a commuter school (almost 1/2 students live off campus) and the OPs SAT scores are still below the middle 50% range.

perhaps its best to get off the computer and put in a few hours of SAT studying…

jym626 · February 28, 2011, 12:00pm

Did you get your ACT scores back today, ec? How did you do?

early_college · February 28, 2011, 2:47pm

Jym, my status says “still registered”. I even waited until 1AM. I won’t be doing that again. Hopefully, it will be up soon.

foolishpleasure · February 28, 2011, 3:08pm

EC, I think you have to reign in your expectations and generate a more reasonable college list. Please remember that at an SAT optional school grades will be particularly important and at some of the more competitive SAT opt school, most successfull applicants have take a couple of AP courses every semester and have very high GPAs. Sadly, even if admitted, you past performance suggest that you would struggle at the more competitive SAT optional schools.

Also, SAT optional for some schools (Conn College?) does not mean test optional. The school simply gives you a choice of submitting ACT, SATII or AP scores instead of SAT reasoning (SAT I) scores. Finally, a number of the schools on your list (NYU) are notoriously bad in terms of need-based aid and others (HWS, Goucher - - maybe Wheaton), while not quite as bad, tend to give a lot of small merit grants rather than meet 100% of need (they “gap”).

For our family, money was a definite issue, so my girls ended up dropping most of the “gap” schools and focued instead on schools that meet 100% of need (we found the women’s colleges to be among the best options - - though obviously not at all an option for you).

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PS - - keeping my fingers crossed that you did well on the ACT.

early_college · February 28, 2011, 3:21pm

From Conn College’s website, “Applicants may choose to submit no tests for review or may select to submit the SAT Reasoning, two SAT Subject Tests or the ACT” <a href=“http://www.conncoll.edu/admission/11188.htm[/url]”>http://www.conncoll.edu/admission/11188.htm</a>

It seems to me that you don’t have to submit any test scores for Con College. Also, I think that there are better SAT Optional schools than my list for example: Bates, Bowdoin, Wake Forest, Hamilton, etc.

Out of this list I would suggest that American and Conn College are the big reaches:
Wheaton College
Sarah Lawrence
Fairfield
American
Wittenburg
Conn College
Susquehanna
Urinsus
Lawrence University
Drew University
Marist College
Hobart and Smith Colleges

I really need schools which will be affordable. NYU was on my list, and so was Goucher but they didn’t make my SAT Optional list. NYU is way too expensive though. My favorite colleges are Emerson, Clark, and Ohio Wesleyan though.

foolishpleasure · February 28, 2011, 4:37pm

EC, I wasn’t sure about Conn College, that’s why I put a question mark! If you have recently and carefully checked each school’s site and the FairTest site, you know more than I do (I haven’t checked since 2008-09, when D2 was applying).

Also, I didn’t mean to suggeest that the schools on your list were the most competitive SAT optional schools. Conn College and American may be the most “reachy” schools on your list, but Ursinus (74% submit SAT, 54% have gpa over 3.75) is a close second, likewise Lawrence (54% gpa over 3.75).

Still, for me the primary concern is affordability. At a number of your “high match/match” SAT optional schools, a lot of the aid dollars are going as small merit scholarships as opposed to need-based grants. This may also be the case with Emerson, and Ohio Wesleyan, and your numbers are a bit low for all 3 of your SAT schools. (Whe D2 applied, Clark offered fewed of the discount awards b/c it had a relatively low sticker price.)

I’m not saying scrap your entire list, but instead of 15 schools (12 SAT optional), none of which meets 100% of need, I’d keep about half your current list and add 3-4 more schools that are both admissions safeties and financial safeties. Aftern all, what’s the point of putting all this effort into admission only to find out you can’t afford to attend?

early_college · February 28, 2011, 4:49pm

Thanks! Affordability is my number one priority right now. Also, my choices are very limited due to my low SAT scores. I wouldn’t cry if I got denied over a lot of the schools on my current list. I had to add some of the schools because they were “SAT Optional”. Vassar would be a great fit, and so would Brown if I had the grades/scores. GCSU and Valdosta State are my instate options. Although, I am not crazy over either school. They always say to “love thy safety”, but I don’t love either. Flagler College in St. Augustine may be a good financial deal.

If I had to keep my favorite schools:
Emerson
Ohio Wesleyan
Clark (I’ve heard Clark gives great aid)
American
Conn College
Wheaton College
Fairfield
Sarah Lawrence
Drew

Do you suggest any school which would meet 100% of need and may be SAT Optional? Thanks!

nysmile · February 28, 2011, 5:28pm

Take Bates, Bowdoin, and Wake Forest (as well as few others) off your list because they’re way too reachy for you.

<a href=“MoneyWatch: Financial news, world finance and market news, your money, product recalls updated daily - CBS News”>MoneyWatch: Financial news, world finance and market news, your money, product recalls updated daily - CBS News;

^Do you realize how many of the colleges you’ve been focusing on for the past 2 years are included in these two lists?

You really do need a reality check. You’ve been on this forum for two years and you still think you know better than everyone else. You still think that you have a solid chance at very selective colleges even though your HS rigor/grades/test scores are lacking for the very selective tier of colleges. You’re still obsessed with NY.

Unless you start really listening to the advice you’ve been given over the past two years, you’re setting yourself up for a very disappointing college admission’s decision cycle.

To start creating your list, you should first narrow colleges by the following: Finances, Solid chance of admission, wide range of majors/minors, and ability to get to and from the college during academic breaks.

early_college · February 28, 2011, 5:31pm

Bates, Bowdoin, and Wake Forest were never on my list. I was just saying that there are more selective colleges than the ones on my list.

nysmile · February 28, 2011, 6:00pm

It appears that one of the links in my previous post has been deleted and replaced in duplicate with one of them.

earlycollege, search campus grotto in google. On that website, you can click on a more thorough list of the most expensive colleges. Read it. Study it. Do not count on getting enough financial aid to cover the costs of these colleges.

You are currently a junior–taking 2nd year of foreign language and you’re only at the geometry level in math. There’s nothing wrong with that, but snap yourself out of narnia and bring yourself back into reality. You will go to college, but you need to understand where your rigor, gpa, SAT/ACT scores, and finances best fit possible colleges.

early_college · February 28, 2011, 6:08pm

I am not in geometry. I am in algebra 2, and I will be taking trig next year. Also, at my school most kids only take 2 years of a foreign language. That is the norm where I live. I will be taking my third year of French next year.

The schools on my list aren’t top schools. I think they are great fits. I’ve talked to other CC members and they agree. I just need good financial options. Also, only 28% of people in my high school take ONE AP class. Compared to them, my rigor is better. And no, I am not talking about America as a whole, but my high school. My high school is also on the top 1000 high schools by Newsweek, so it’s not bad either. Also, not everyone in the top 20% even takes AP classes.

jym626 · February 28, 2011, 6:38pm

ec-
What everyone is TRYING to tell you is that these colleges aren’t going to compare you to the other students in your school with respect to rigor, they are going to compare you to their other applicants and their expectations of their applicants. Your list is too reach-heavy for YOUR transcript, YOUR coursework, YOUR GPA, YOUR standardized scores (even if you dont report) and YOUR number of AP classes. As people ar trying, TRYING to tell you is that you need safeties-- financial and academic safeties, or you will be facing tough times next year. Any update on those new ACT scores?

And even though you ar only required to take 2 yrs of a language, many of those colleges you are considering want to see 3 years. It has nothing to do with what is the “norm” in your school.

nysmile · February 28, 2011, 6:56pm

You’re a junior and you’re in Algebra 2. You are up against many, many kids who have completed math through Pre-Calc. by the time they’ve finished their junior year. Add onto that the large number of students in the country who will have completed AP Calc. by the end of their junior year. Taking Algebra 2 in your junior year is below the average level for many college bound student.

If most kids in your school only take 2 years of foreign language, I would not consider your school to be very competitive. For many colleges, you won’t even be considered for admittance with only 2 years of foreign language. By junior year, you should have already completed 3 years of foreign language and be in level 4.

Stop comparing yourself to people in your school. You need to see the big picture and see how your stats and rigor compare to students nationwide who are applying to specific colleges.

It’s funny how you seem to focus on the few people who agree with you rather than the numerous people who have tried over the years to make you see the reality of your stats/rigor/finances/etc.

Stop with the selective hearing and really listen to the advice that people have given you over the past two years. I’m sorry for sounding harsh. It’s just that I haven’t really noticed any growth or change in your thought process regarding colleges.

Sit down with your parents and ask them exactly how much money they can afford to pay per year towards your college costs. Don’t guess or assume the figure. Get the facts from them. From there, go back and re-evaluate colleges. After figuring out which colleges on the list fit you financially, re-evaluate again and figure out if your rigor, gpa, class rank, and SAT/ACT scores fit into the 50% stats for accepted students for the remaining schools.

Did atrocious on the SAT; SAT Optional Suggestions?

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