@1518mom my d took the ACT with writing twice last fall and both times her essay score came out a couple of weeks after the other scores.
S18 loved UIUC today!
Excerpt from text:
Illinois is awesome!! Very nice campus, good academics, really impressed with the formula SAE team, and pretty cool facilities for engineering. Overall very good impression.
He was particularly impressed that one of their Formula SAE leaders actually just got back from a year off school where he interned with a Formula 1 racing team in Europe. Basically S18’s dream internship.
Omigosh @1822mom, LOVE the avatar!
Heeeere we go!! 
Woke up to good news, D18’s SAT score came in just above her expectations. Whew, done with testing!
Yep @ShrimpBurrito I felt it was time for a switch and this one seemed a good fit! :))
Congrats on DONE with testing @ollie113 !!! <:-P
DD’18 got a nice boost on her SAT. She is one happy camper. (For those looking for another test date, College Board added an August test date - which is great for students with fall sports schedules.)
Congrats to your D, @ollie113!
S did well on the SAT, 1490 (760 Verbal, 730 math). He missed 1 in Reading, 3 in Writing and 9 in Math. He did not do the essay. (Normally, I’d be more vague about his scores, but I’m posting the details because of my earlier posts re: SAT prep books and bumping scores above 700)
We might be done with testing, subject to the below.
S was sick on PSAT day, so he’ll be qualifying for National Merit with his SAT score. For PSAT purposes, he scored a 38R, 37W and 36.5M, for a Selection Index of 223. We’re in CA, and last year’s cutoff was 221. That Guy from That Blog* says there’s a chance for cutoffs to go up next year, but it’s highly unlikely that CA would go all the way to 224.
Now for the retake scenarios…
S wants to be competitive for the McDermott at UT Dallas and the DHS / PT / Stamps at Tulane. This year’s McDermotts averaged 1540 on the SAT, and 2250 used to be the minimum score for the big Tulane merit awards.
If he decides to retake for scholarship purposes, he’ll also do the essay so he can apply to UCs.
Best wishes for everyone else receiving scores today!
*We’re not allowed to name the guy or the blog.
We’re going to Miami in April Frost School of Music I’m hoping it makes his top 3. After touring Drexel on a freezing afternoon last week Miami sounds good to me!
Thanks, everyone for the tip on ACT scores coming out…our D18 didn’t realize they were already available since she was still waiting for SAT scores. Her ACT scores were good, but her SAT scores were really high compared to what we were expecting, so she’s on cloud 9.
She went from a 1240 on the PSAT last fall to a 1390 (with 770 Math), and her only practice was the free Khan Academy online program that was linked to her PSAT performance. She was hoping to get 1300, but I guess all of her practice paid off. She worked on the practice assignments 3 times a week (for about an hour) and took 4 practice exams online through Khan academy. So, if you have a child who is self-motivated to work through the Kaplan system, I’d say give that a shot first rather than spending $$ on an SAT prep class.
Now we just need to decide if it’s worth it for her to take it once more in June, in the hope of bringing up her reading score. Her essay scores were strong enough, and I think we’ll skip any other ACT testing. I’m worried if she takes it again and her math score goes down, colleges may not react favorably to it. Does anyone know if you superscore SATs whether schools still get to see all of the scores from administrations linked to the superscores?
Congratulations to those getting good news about SAT scores!
@Diotima, the retake issue is a hard one. To me, the problem is with the current concordance tables. If they are “accurate”, then your S’s score would be a 2150 on the old test. I personally think the tables are off, and it should equate to a higher old test score. There’s a thread about this here: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1961046-old-sat-scores-compared-to-redesigned-sat-scores-p1.html
It looks like some schools are adjusting their numbers and don’t align with CB’s concordance tables. So the question would be, what numbers are Tulane and UTDallas going to use? I’m not sure there is a way to know. Thus, with all of the uncertainty, I may have him retake if he thinks he can improve. Just my thoughts.
Thanks, @suzy100! I’m pretty sure he can improve his math score. He missed nine, and he’s missed as few as four on his best practice test. It’s also possible that he’ll get a friendlier curve on some of the other sections. For instance, he only missed one on the Reading section, and that would give him an 800 on roughly every 3rd to 4th SAT.
He’s going to sit on it for a bit before he decides. Today is his birthday, so thinking about the SAT is pretty low on his list. 
He’s very happy about his SI for Nat’l Merit, though.
I know that Pitt for example used to superscore the SAT, so if you had one SAT with a higher CR and one with a higher math, they would use the highest one from each test and combine them. I think they still do that for the new SAT.
I am happy with my son’s SAT score, an improvement over his PSAT. Especially in math.
For the schools we are targeting the current score is fine, but it would be nice to raise it for merit chances, especially since he has a good unweighted GPA.
Since spring is going to be busy, I think taking it in August might be a good idea, then he can do some practice over summer.
Yes, the potential for superscoring is another mark in favor of a retake. I will have to look into how superscoring works. For instance, if you have one SAT with essay, and one without, will they still superscore between them?
DD’s SAT increased 70 points from the PSAT with only a month or so of Khan. Her reading score was good to begin with so it was the math score that really showed improvement. She will test again and I think if she continues to study with Khan and do a little targeted work with a tutor on math, she’ll be good to go
“For instance, if you have one SAT with essay, and one without, will they still superscore between them?” Yes, it’s my understanding they will. @DiotimaDM.
@lifegarding, I don’t think I understand what you are asking here: “Does anyone know if you superscore SATs whether schools still get to see all of the scores from administrations linked to the superscores?”
I think @lifegarding is asking if schools see both sittings, with the highest score in each highlighted, or if they only see the highest score for each subsection such that it’s visually indistinguishable from a single sitting.
This:
- 1480 (780* / 700)
- 1480 (740 / 740*)
Superscore: 1520 (780 / 740)
Or this:
- 1520 (780 / 740)
I’m no expert, but I’ve heard that the answer is the latter, that it looks like a single sitting to the adcom.
@DiotimaDM thanks, your explanation is in line with what I was wondering…but definitely easier to understand than my original message :). I think D18 can probably score a bit higher on reading based on her practice tests, but I have a feeling her math score could go down substantially since it was much higher than she expected.
Northwestern was today’s school. S18 didn’t even stay for the engineering session. He cut our after the regular session and they are going to have some deep dish pizza in the city before driving up to Madison for the last visit tomorrow.
According to him, “Northwestern wasn’t my favorite because the campus was kinda ehh and they didn’t seem to prioritize engineering (kinda like Duke). Really cool school, just not for me. Didn’t feel super excited about it.”
He has enough schools at this point that if he is feeling just meh about a school, it’s good that he can figure that out.
@DiotimaDM and @lifegarding, that is interesting! My guess would have been the other way around. Who does the math before an adcom sees them?
@RoonilWazlib99, my D felt the same about Northwestern, minus the engineering part. (She’s not an engineering prospect.) We both really liked the Evanston area though. D is revisiting in March (going along with a friend who wants to check it out) so her mind may change.
Well if they have taken two SATs and then when you order the scores to be sent, it will send both scores unless you use score choice (which I think some schools don’t allow).
It will probably say the test date and sub scores per section.
But I would think that sending all scores would help, not hurt if a school superscores.