<p>My D is a good student. Honors class and a few AP. She is ranked in the top 11% of her class but doesn’t test well on standardized testing. This has been an issue forever. What type of scholarships are out there for someone like her? For Admissions do schools look at the whole picture or can the standardized tests keep you completely out of consideration? Will they look at the score and use that to weed her out?</p>
<p>Honestly, she just needs to study harder. I thought the same thing about myself until I put all I had into it. You also have the option of SAT optional colleges. One of the top ones (ranked #27 or 28) is Wake Forest in NC. The majority of merit scholarships are based on scores. I suggest she try a bit more until she’s sure she can’t do it. However, if her scores aren’t decent, the other areas of her application (grades/ECs) better be stellar for her to be considered at somewhat top universities. Although test scores won’t get you into a college by themselves, you still need them for the rest of the app to be considered and looked upon.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Bowdoin is also SAT optional, and they’re ranked like #6 national liberal arts. They’re a top school. But as aares1 said, you do need to have everything else amazing when applying without scores.</p>
<p>[The</a> National Center for Fair & Open Testing | FairTest](<a href=“http://www.fairtest.org%5DThe”>http://www.fairtest.org) has an up-to-date list of no-test and test optional institutions. Have her look at that list. Many of them (especially some of the women’s colleges) offer excellent need-based aid.</p>
<p>Has she always done poorly on standardized exams? If so, has she been screened for dyslexia and other processing disorders? Good classroom grades and bad test scores is practically diagnostic for processing issues. If she does better on homework and projects than she does on in-class exams, you also might want to have her evaluated for anxiety. That’s another issue that often results in low exam scores, and is worth dealing with before she heads off to college. In both of these cases, a firm diagnosis can get appropriate accommodations for the testing situation which will almost certainly result in test scores that better reflect her true abilities.</p>
<p>I have one child who is like that. Definitely a disadvantage in getting scholarships since test scores are the main thing in snagging them. Look at Momfromtexas’s thread for strategies in getting awards. My son did get some money, including a full tuition award to a local Catholic college, but it is not a big name recognition school at all.</p>
<p>Even at test-optional schools, to get merit scholarships, usually test scores are required.</p>
<p>It’s very hard to get scholarships without the high test scores. The way schools determin merit is this…</p>
<p>There is a very large pool of students with high GPAs.</p>
<p>There is a smaller pool of students with high test scores.</p>
<p>There is an even smaller pool of students with BOTH high test scores and high GPA…those are the ones that get the merit scholarships. </p>
<p>There are just too many students with high GPAs. And, high test scores is what “helps” the school with rankings.</p>