How important are my SAT scores

Test Preparation
1

<p>weighted gpa- 3.9 I’ve taken 3 ap classes
unweighted gpa- 3.8</p>

<p>SAT-1580
reading… 460
math… 570
writing… 550</p>

<p>I’ve played basketball all 4 years of highschool
i’ve received a silver award in girl scouts
i’m currently in 2 clubs
I’m in a school program called csf, where i tutor other students
I have about 50 hours of volunteer work</p>

<p>I’m currently a senior in high school and i’m looking to get accepted into a 4 year university with a good business program(haven’t decided if i want to major in accounting or financing yet) i took my sat about 4 months ago and got a 1580(not very high). i signed up for sat prep classes that are 4 hours every wednesday for one month. i’m taking the sat again in november and im taking the act in october. the classes are $125 and i can’t decide if it’s worth it. i know that my gpa and ext activities are good enough for most of the schools im going to apply to, i just dont know if a 1580 will eliminate my chances of getting into those schools. basically i’m asking if it is worth paying $125 for prep classes or should i just take some practices tests on my own and see how i do on my sat??</p>

<p>i’m applying to…
cal poly slo & pomona
loyola & chapman
ucsc & uc irvine
csun</p>

2

<p>It depends on the schools. Do you know their 25 & 75 percentile?</p>

<p>Also, have you consider ACT? You might score higher on ACT.</p>

3

<p>For pomona, the avg sat is 2200+
UCI: 2000+
Chapman: 1800+
UCSC: 1900+
There are many loyolas. I’m not sure which you’re talking about.</p>

<p>Yes, you need to bump up your SAT scores.</p>

4

<p>but are they really that important if my gpa is good enough for the colleges i’m looking into</p>

5

<p>

</p>

<p>It depends on how well do the colleges know your high school? If they know your h.s. well (i.e. they admitted many students from your hig school before), they may just use the h.s. GPA to evaluate you. If not, the colleges have to use SAT/ACT scores to “equalize” all their high school applicants and compare one applicant to other.</p>

<p>You should talk to the cooleges and ask.</p>

6

<p>Also check the list of schools that don’t require SAT or ACT for admission. It’s on this website somewhere.</p>

7

<p>Definitely worth it. Grade inflation in many high schools makes it very competitive, in my area many kids have 4+ unweighted GPA’s. </p>

<p>If someone tells you that you can get in on grades alone, good luck. Look at the admission statistics for SAT scores on colleges that average 2000 or so, there are usually less than a handful that are accepted with scores below 1,600.</p>