<p>From what I have been hearing in presentations, pretty much all private schools have gone to superscoring. The only ones that may not are probably State schools. My experience from two years ago with UC schools was that they wanted your best numbers from a single sitting and I dont know if they have changed that rule.</p>
<p>Some of them are changing the rules from last year to this year. I believe Harvard wanted all your scores and they superscored last year but this year if I am reading it correctly, they dont care if you just report only your best scores. The fact that they want all your scores does nt necessarily impact you if they are superscoring unless you want to withold a subject or two if they are not needed to support your application. I would try to not send in the extra score if collegeboard allows me because I am still ambiguous about why CMU would need a subject test score that is not needed to support the application since I am interpreting that if they need two subject scores, I need to send multiple attempts of those two subject scores and a third subject has never been required and i might have taken it to fulfill some other college’s requirement.</p>
<p>Sending in additional scores favorable to you even if the college does nt need it should at least give you some brownie points. 790 in Math II is considered a very good score irrespective of percentile since a much smaller percentage of high school kids even attempt it.</p>
<p>The link I posted has almost all of the colleges and their score choice policy. Most schools want all scores and they will update the application with the highest score. You can CTRL + F (or Command + F on a Mac) to find the school you want.</p>
<p>CPU – That document doesn’t talk about subject exams at all, and since the whole score choice is a moving target, it’s important to actually look at the admissions web sites for the schools you’re interested in. The CB document is probably accurate as of its publication date last fall, but that would have been for last admissions year, not this one.</p>
<p>This is the sort of silly technicality you don’t want to be on the wrong side of, YK? And the information is ridiculously easy to find for each school if you know which schools your applying to.</p>
<p>Texas – I think Harvard’s been fine with score choice for a while now. We visited last summer, and they said then to just send your best scores. I think that they just don’t care. There’s a basic level of scores where they’re willing to look further, but it’s one small data point in their evaluation. I also have the feeling that the schools like Yale that want everything are being a little paternalistic about it. They’re doing it not to rule out kids, but because kids may think differently from admissions staff as to what is the strongest score combination, and they can’t combine scores if they don’t have the data. Given all the stuff they look at, test scores are a small (but important) piece. It just feels so important to us because it feels like it’s one of the parts we can really control or improve (unlike grades and ECs, which are pretty much locked in by now, or letters, where all you can do is choose wisely and hope for the best).</p>
<p>OTOH, thanks for posting it. My mind boggles at the number of bright kids your age who are too helpless (or lazy) to look down two or three threads to see someone’s asked the same question or to do a little research themselves. I think you’ll find your maturity will serve you well in your college career. Best of luck!</p>
<p>amtc - when you check that on the CB, do they use the highest score from each section, if multiple tests are available? I guess the CB uses superscores, but I couldn’t verify it.</p>
<p>Steve, thank you for saying that. CPU, I agree with Steve. Your maturity will carry you far. Do check with the individual college for their updates on SATs. One college on my kid’s list changed its policy on standardized tests recently.</p>
<p>Where can one find additional college board tests to practice on? My kid got the Bluebook with two practice tests. Wouldn’t mind trying a couple more.</p>
<p>Igloo - does nt blue book have 11 tests or something like that?</p>
<p>Ijustdrive - I just tried your method of checking the importance on collegeboard and guess what - Yale says everything is very important (rank, gpa, test scores etc) and Harvard has nothing for GPA and rank while test scores are listed as considered as a factor of admission! No wonder people can’t understand how Harvard admits 2100s and rejects 2400s.</p>
<p>Texaspg – thanks, but I can’t take credit for that method. Not that I can remember who gets the credit.</p>
<p>My dishwasher just died. (It won’t stop running.) I’m having 10 for dinner, 2 of whom are my out-of-town ILs. I suggested a restaurant. I was over-ruled (shouted down, actually). </p>
<p>All of this while D is trying to study for finals. She stayed up until 1 last night finishing the chem review, and thinks she’s done studying for that one. She’ll opt out of the (optional) MVC final, but the history final could be a bear. That class really is run like a college course, and while they know the topics for the essays, the exam is a couple of in-class essay questions. Break out the blue books (the ones you write exam answers in, not the ones sold by the CB)!</p>
<p>CountMonteChristo, it worked. D did very well on the SAT and is not going to retake. She also did the SAT Question of the Day, for about three months, before she took the first practice test.</p>
<p>I spoke with an admissions officer at a highly competitive school about their requirement for all the scores. He said it was not to force students to show their weeknesses, but to create an environment where applicants will think twice before investing so much time and money into standardized tests. He said taking the SAT three times is fine, any more than that is frowned upon at his school. There is a sense that families with less money simply cannot afford to take the same tests 3 and 4 times to get a better score; moreover, they want kids investing their time in ECs and their other passions.</p>
<p>do any of your kids feel pressured to decide what they want to do in life? (like choosing a college major, or career pathway.)</p>
<p>my mind changes so much, i think it’s because of the anxiety of knowing that applications are coming up, and i’d like to have some idea of what i want to do. i have ideas, but they just don’t stick.</p>
<p>everyone i talk to says “you just wanted to do something *else[i/i] yesterday!” i guess mums the word until i have to decide which school i’m matriculating to next spring.</p>
<p>CPU, DS doesn’t really stress much, since he knows that he wants to do either healthcare or health research, so his classes will be the the same for the first few years. He still has plans to be active in politics as well, but he doesn’t want to go to school for that. I know that I, personally, changed my mind weekly during my senior year, and i changed my major twice in college. I also don’t “use” my major directly. I know that you think about computer science and engineering, so these are more specialized, but I am confident that you will figure it out by sophomore year of college.</p>
<p>texaspg- i wish i could combine poly sci and neuroscience and computer science into one big major and have a job related to all of them… i guess i am “undecided.” i just want to love what i’m doing and be stable.</p>
<p>Mizzbee, thank you. I’m changing my mind… daily lol. I think I will be one of those people who changes majors a few times. I’m like your son, I want to be politically active, but I don’t necessarily want to do that for the rest of my life. </p>
<p>My first childhood dream was to become a neurosurgeon. fast forward 10 years to now, i’ve changed my mind to so many different things, but at the end of the day, going to med school still comes back. </p>
<p>CPU I think “undecided” is a very appropriate place to be at your age. You’ve seen a bit of the world and know a bit of yourself-- but there’s much, much more to discover and we hope many decades of life ahead. You should find a place where you can enjoy being undecided-- that’s what a liberal arts education is about! And you aren’t even THAT undecided-- science seems to be where it’s at for you. Get a thorough education and you can evolve with the world around you as you grow and change.</p>
<p>There is a great book, “What color is your parachute” that had an exercise where you think about what you want in daily working conditions, such as working in a team or alone, number of hours each day, income, vaired jobs or seet requirements, etc. It helped me when I was looking for a new career. It made me realize that what I thought that I wanted didn’t match the work conditions that I preferred. I don’t know if you have enough life experince to know if you want an office, etc, but possibly visiting the career center as a freshman in college is a great place to start. Pick a school that has solid science and you will have a good foundation regardless of what you ultimately decide.</p>