This student shares a personal admissions journey and discusses why a high SAT wasn’t an admissions guarantee. https://www.collegeconfidential.com/articles/my-experience-heres-why-a-1480-sat-didnt-help-my-admissions-odds/
“First, I should mention that I get in-state tuition in every state due to my parents’ military service.”
You may want to put a disclaimer in there since this is not %100 accurate and could be very misleading to military families.
Also, students could also be misled to think that if they check the box to release their scores when they take their SATs that they don’t have to officially send their scores in with their applications.
Lastly, why use a misleading headline? Her SAT score had nothing to do with what happened besides she didn’t take it again.
Long story short. From the article: “NONE of the schools had received my SATs. And after some investigation, I discovered the reason: I never sent them.”
Moral to the story: If you want to get admitted to college, you have to send them your SAT scores.
Seems to me to be a non-story.
I think that the post on the very top is misleading in the student’s situation. It’s not that the 1480 couldn’t guarantee (which in many cases do not), but his mistaking of not sending the scores was a big factor. The schools that he applied to, especially some state schools don’t read essay, rec, etc. They look at SAT scores and GPA to quickly admit candidates, unlike more selective schools that use it as a mere screening option to filter applicants. A 1480, in my opinion, makes him a likely candidate for the schools that were listed.
I agree that the title of this thread is misleading. Doesn’t matter what your SAT scores or whatever measure might be if you don’t send in the materials.
I also am curious as to how the OP gets instate tuition in 5 states. Military alone isn’t going to do that. Maybe 2 states if the mom and the dad claim separate domiciles, but 5? How is that?
@cptofthehouse @MomOf3DDs I checked in with the student who wrote this article, and the student asked me to share the following: “The Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act allows veterans who have been discharged in the last 3 years to get in-state tuition in every state. These benefits can be transferred to dependents.”
Thank you for the quick reply and very valuable information. Something to share on CC as there may be students and parents and counselors who are not aware of this. I certainly was not. What a wonderful benefit to have!!! Perhaps share the info on the Financial aid forum?
@cptofthehouse Our staff is actually working on an article with FAQs for military families at the moment, so hopefully it will be really illuminating. Cheers!
It is still not as simple as that and every military family should look into their own situation.
@MomOf3DDs is correct, Here is a summary of the relevant section in HR 3230 from congress.gov:
quote Directs the Secretary to disapprove, for purposes of the All-Volunteer Force and the Post-9/11 Educational Assistance programs, courses of education provided by a public educational institution of higher education (IHE) that charges veterans living in the state higher tuition and fees than it charges in-state residents, regardless of the veteran’s state of residence. Makes this provision applicable to: (1) veterans who were discharged or released from at least 90 days of active service less than three years before their date of enrollment in the applicable course, (2) family members eligible for such assistance due to their relationship to such veterans, and (3) courses that commence on or after July 1, 2015. Prohibits the Secretary from disapproving a public IHE’s course on the grounds that the IHE conditions a veteran’s receipt of in-state tuition rates on such veteran: (1) demonstrating an intent, by means other than physical presence, to establish residency in the state; or (2) satisfying other requirements not related to the establishment of residency.
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I think the lesson of this, is every student should do EA non-binding applications to go through the process and not just wait until RD to apply. There can be a lot of hiccups and finding this out EA is a smart thing to do
Regarding the article in the OP, every applicant should check the standardized test requirements directly on their colleges’ websites. Many more colleges now allow self-reporting scores in the Common App; this has rapidly changed over the past year. However, others still require official reports.
As for the score being sufficient, applicants should be aware of score data available on each college’s website, both in the class profile and in the Common Data Set.
People seem to have missed the student’s message. I think it is a good one. The student’s mistake is very relatable. It is an instance of a memory lapse that could happen to anyone but that also could do serious damage. A nice reminder to be careful and do a lot of checking.
Yes. This is an adolescent who is unselfishly sharing her own oversight to help others. The title she chose is irrelevant to the valuable content of the post. Thanks for reminding us that the small things matter.
It’s just a clickbait title, the actual score had nothing to do with being denied or waitlisted. It is because the student did not do their responsibilities, a 1480 will get you into all of those schools given that you maintained a decent gpa and participated in plenty EC’s.