My daughter is feeling like she wants to report her SAT to the all the colleges to which she’s applying even though her score is below the mid 50% range for her major at some of the schools on her list. Her thought is that her scores are nearly within the range, and it’s better that schools know this than leaving it as an unknown factor. She thinks the it will help her stand out because the majority of applicants don’t report test scores at all. She feels it won’t drag her down too much because her GPA is pretty consistent with her SAT score and that her real strength is in her course rigor.
I respect this decision even though I’m not sure it’s the right approach. She just emailed a regional admissions counselor for her top choice school to get their input about whether or not she should submit. I’ll update this once she hears back, but I’m curious about how other applicants have approached this. Thanks.
At this point (with all the information that is coming out of schools going back to test required in some form), I personally believe that is sound logic unless a college specifically says otherwise.
To be sure, I think most likely it won’t matter–meaning if you submit slightly below the 25th, or don’t and let them make whatever assumptions they want, you will probably end up in the same place. Namely needing your grades/rigor and other stuff to make the case for admission.
But I do think there is some chance they might see a score at least close to their 25th as a positive rather than just neutral relative to no score at all.
Take a look at the schools’ 2020 CDS, as that was the last one where most schools required tests. If she’s above the 50th percentile then, absolutely submit.
Since then, scores have been ratcheting up, but a smart admissions staff would be happy with the same types of scores as before.
My daughter - knowing the ranges wanted to send her scores to all but one - that I sort of talked her out of. She didn’t get into that one.
For her, she was proud of the score - and it was important to send.
So as long as she’s aware of the ranges, I’d let her make the choice.
To answer your question wholly though - I’d say it depends on the school. The reason I mention this is merit - some may require a certain SAT for merit…and if she doesn’t make it, she can’t get merit. But they might have a TO scholarship (usually smaller) that she’d be disqualified for.
But in general - if she knows the implications of what she’s doing - it’s her apps, and if she got a score she’s genuinely proud of, I’d say - let her make that call.
My D24 submitted her ACT score (32) even though it was one point below the mid-50 range (33-34) of her school . FWIW the last time the school had 100 percent reporting, its mid-50 range was 31-34. Her unweighted GPA (3.73) was also in the bottom 25 percent for the school (just barely). We were concerned that if she didn’t submit a score they would assume it was even lower. She did not have a “hook” but we felt the rest of her application was pretty strong, and she got in - yay! Bottom line, I don’t think it will hurt you to submit an “almost there” score, especially if it is within the range that the school had pre-covid when they (presumably) required everyone to submit. Good luck!
My son was admitted to schools where his SAT was slightly below the 25-75% range and rejected at schools where he was in the top 25%. We couldn’t discern any pattern at all based on scores. So I say if the score is in the ballpark, it’s probably better to submit (rather than let them assume she’s trying to hide a much lower score).
Great idea. We didn’t even think of doing that. We’ve only been looking at the CDS for the last couple of years. But looking at 2020 makes so much sense. Thank you!
I would strategize approach college by college. Is the test truly optional or considered? What was the 2020 range? Is the school consider wholistic or do they focus on the GPA/Test only? And let that be a guide on who she submits to or not.
Being in the lower 25% is not a bad thing… by definition, 25% of the people that are going there have those scores. But if the college were already a reach and it’s truly test optional and the score were quite a bit below the mid 50% I personally would have steered my son away from submitting.
Prior to TO days, D19’s college accepted her with an ACT right at the previous year’s 25th percentile, and it ended up being 1 point below that for her entry year. I think common wisdom is that the lower 25th comprises hooked applicants or those like art/drama/music etc that need a portfolio for entry, but she was none of those. I’d say if your daughter wants to submit, let her. I agree that the middle 50 is probably skewed higher for most schools now too so it probably doesn’t look as “bad” as you think it does.
My daughter heard from the admissions counselor. She said that submitting or not submitting were both fine.
We’ve decided that my daughter’s SAT scores are reflective of her current abilities and have decided that she will submit them everywhere. Our thinking is that if a college does not want her because of her “poor” SAT score, that place probably isn’t a good fit. She’s going in as a STEM major, so it’s important that she not get in over her head in a hyper competitive program. Thanks again everyone for your help! I love the CC community!!
Is 2020 the best year to use for a pre-COVID profile? Or should it be 2019? In 2020 the applicants may have had to submit scores, but the profile of enrolled students could be significantly different, as many students opted to defer or stay closer to home, and colleges took more from the waitlist to fill their classes. I would at least look at both 2019 and 2020.
On CC it is typical to refer to the year of HS graduation (hence you are a “Parent HS Class of 2025”). I’ve never seen anyone refer to students who started college in 2019 as the class of 2020, and when commenters like @hebegebe refer to the “2020 CDS”, I would expect it to mean the class that graduated HS in 2020 and were admitted to and began college that fall, in order to avoid confusion with all other CC terminology.
But it sounds like we agree on substance: the most relevant CDS (pre-COVID with required score submission) would be for students graduating HS and starting college in 2019, not 2020.
I think @twoin18 brought up an interesting point, but I think it’s worth looking further at the data to see if it actually made a difference.
Deferrals were most common at the most selective colleges. For example Harvard had almost a third of the class defer and even after looking at its waitlist it still ended up with a smaller class. It had 1643 freshmen starting in 2019 and only 1402 freshmen starting in 2020. Yet the SAT scores barely moved, with a 2019 spread of 720-780 EBRW and 740-800 Math, compared to a 2020 spread of 710-770 EBRW and 750-800 Math.
Going down a couple of levels of selectivity, Tufts had a 2019 spread of 680-750 EBRW and 710-790 Math, compared to a 2020 spread of 680-750 and 700-780. Total freshman enrollment for fall of 2019 was 745 men and 868 women for a total of 1613, whereas for 2020 it was 720 men and 893 women again for a total of 1613.
At first glance, I don’t think it matters whether you use 2019 or 2020.
The HS class of 2020 had to submit scores so I would think the CDS for that class is still relevant. The pandemic hit in March of 2020, by which point all college apps had been submitted months before (in the fall of 2019) and test scores were required at most of universities. By the time the pandemic hit, the class of 2020 was hearing back from colleges.
Unless the class make-up was impacted by deferrals: there’s always a difference between the stats of admitted students and those that enrolled, and its possible that the difference widened in 2020.
Of course the stats quoted by @hebegebe suggest that at many colleges the difference wasn’t noticeable. I agree the effect could be confined to a limited number of schools: Harvard has a waitlist full of equally qualified students on a pure stats basis. I’d look at schools which have a smaller class, like mid-tier LACs, where it can be hard to find enough full pay students for the college to make budget, and perhaps a few colleges in states which had more onerous longer lasting lockdowns that deterred OOS students (e.g. California).
For one school that my kid is interested in, when I looked, according to the CDS they had already moved test optional for the 2020-2021 year vs required for 2019-2020. That said, they still had a lot of submissions that year, vs a big drop the following year (when the average submitted moved higher)