Some school districts require you take the test. In Chicago it is a requirement by the State for graduation. So a friends daughter took it last year and got a Act 34 and SAT 1530, on her own. But this was NOT administered through here school. Her mother wanted her to not take the school required Sat since she had 2 very good scores. Her daughter stopped studying and didn’t want to have to send “All,” scores. Her options given are take the school administered SAT then just cancel it, within 3 days Take it and chance it’s the same or better or take it in April and it’s too late to care but will meet the requirement for graduation.
I just wonder how many states have a school graduation requirement?
@Knowsstuff - OH and TX have standardized tests as graduation requirements. I would also be interested in hearing which other states do too.
D was in the same situation as your friend’s D. Took the ACT Fall of junior year and thought she was one and done, but the state required her to sit again in February. It did end up helping her super score but seemed like a waste of time.
@momofsenior1… She was looking at a better score for possible merit. She has a 34 basically now and that should be good for just about any college out there. They have financial resources but let’s face it. Free money is always good money for college… Lol…
But she’s an excellent student with an amazing essay, great Ecs from a known school and in this test optional year, I think she will stick out in a positive sense.
Roughly 8 out of 10 colleges use the superscore in admissions, so they’re not taking into account how many times someone took the exam. So, yes, a 34 is the same no matter how you got there.
Jeff, I am also interested in hearing if you ever overheard a comment about an essay appearing to be heavily influenced by someone else (parent/consultant)?
To expand on this and just read on Amazon the first chapter or “selling”, (great historical review), you state software /ip being used so…
Is it an advantage for a student to go to a school’s website and spend time browsing around? If so, how many times and in what time frame? Ie: once as a junior and a few times as a senior? Weekly for target schools?
This also comes up a lot of the “myth” of this practice.
If an applicant has AP courses listed in 11th grade or earlier, but does not self report AP scores for some or all of them, do admission readers assume that the scores were 1 or 2?
Gosh I hope not. S19 didn’t report two of his scores because he decided not to take the tests for varying reasons. Didn’t affect his decisions. I’ve heard a number of AOs say (in person) that, if something is missing, they can’t assume why and just evaluate with what they have. That was including reps from Princeton, Vandy, Amherst, and more.
So to expand on this (thank you for your time), in this covid cycle will having a score be an advantage over someone that couldn’t take the test at all? Hard to look away once you see 33-36,would be my view. What’s do you think will happen this cycle in the real world?
Lastly, there seems to be a push for black and people of color, urm,to apply to colleges and for the financially deficient, many schools are giving free tuition etc to those with incomes under a certain marker like $65,000. But yet the numbers at most colleges are painfully low and 4-6 year graduation rates even lower.
. Are colleges truly trying to recruit these students? Are students not bothering to apply?
On recalculating GPA, did the schools you are familiar with use a weighting for honors and/or APs? Do they otherwise count numbers of honors courses and/or APs the student took?
Can you shed any more light on what the curriculum discussion sounds like? For example, the above stereotypical "boy" with the good score, weak GPA, "but look at all these honors/APs he took." "But, he didn't take an AP in X subject." Is the GPA/curriculum discussion about competition with the rest of the pool or more about evaluating whether an academic bar has been met, or both?
***4. Quality/rigor of the high school. How does this fit into the discussion? Are average test scores for the high school involved, and if so, how?
Regarding students from low income families, how many of them are prevented from using highly selective private colleges’ “generous” financial aid because they have uncooperative divorced parents?
Re; Florida State Universities only… If admissions states it requires 2 consecutive years of a language on their website, but college consultants say you need 4 years, can you substitute with other Core AP and DE classes if your teens hate language? Same for science if they are not STEM kids? i.e. after honors Biology can they substitute A&P Honors for Chemistry? Substitute DE Statistics for Calculus?
How much of a role does historical data factor into college admissions? For example, if in the past couple of years a specific college has only admitted 1-2 people each year from a specific high school, is that something they consider when assessing who to admit? Moreover, will schools compare you to other applicants from your high school? Thank you!
Jeff- you book was very insightful. Question about URM and their “hook” from a diversity perspective. I did not notice any reference to the LGBTQ+ community and specifically the transgender community in STEM. Are AdComs taking this community into consideration as they try to compose their class? Are they viewed as an URM for admissitions purposes?
Are AO’s anticipating a decrease in ED applications this year?
And, do you think 2024 gap year students will have a bigger effect on the % of ED or RD applicants admitted for the class of 2025? Particularly for Ivy/Top Twenty.
Jeff, why did you choose to research the University of Washington’s admissions process instead of University of Michigan’s or that of another state flagship?