Almost all (or maybe it was all) of the schools my son applied to required that they see all scores. I think U. Chicago did not, because there you can self-report. But pretty sure the rest of the schools did.
Most schools that ask for all scores do it to superscore the results , not to weed out applicants.
@soxmom wow. Do you mind sharing that list? Iāll share our tentative one - Carleton, Grinnell, University of Wisconsin, Kenyon, Oberlin, Denison, Richmond, Wake Forest, Davidson, Pitt, Middlebury. None of them require all scores.
Well shit. Guess my summer plans just changed. Thanks again, all!
Tufts required D to send all scores. I know that Carnegie Mellon does too, and they explicitly state that they consider all scores (see below).
"All applicants are required to submit all official results of either the SAT Reasoning Test/new SAT Test or the ACT Test. ļ»æSAT Subject Test results are recommended for various programs, see the chart below for details*ļ»æ.ļ»æ While weāre interested in the general pattern of your scores, we give most weight to the highest score youāve received on any of the exams.
My older son applied to 9 schools and none of them asked for all of his scored. He did not apply to any super tippy top schools though, but BU,Babson, NEU RPI did not ask for them. None of the State Uās asked either.
D19 plans to take the ACT instead of the SAT as the practice test scores have shown she does better with the ACT. She plans to take her first ACT in September (2017), with the PSAT taken at school in October.
Weāre thinking if she has to take the ACT again sheāll have time to do so in Junior year. Some of the schools on her list superscore the ACT; others do not. We are aiming for schools that superscore.
Sheāll be applying for schools with a portfolio requirement, so she has to have all her applications in by the start of Senior year, so she has time for interviews/portfolio reviews that fall.
None of the schools on her list have a subject test requirement, so she is skipping all SAT II tests. She is So Done with Latin, she will happily take another language in college for any foreign language requirement.
FWIW, D17 applied to 12, and none asked for all her scoresāand that included such higher-end-by-reputation schools (some test-optional, but she sent scores anyway) as Colgate and Smith.
Re: testing. I think a lot depends on the student. D18 has taken the tests at the end of freshman and sophomore years, and then again early junior year. She had decent improvement each time, I believe it is because our small high school is finally catching up in math. She will take the SAT subject tests in June and then she is done, unless she decides to apply to a tippy-top engineering program, otherwise her stats are good for merit.
S19 is a completely different animal. He will prep slightly(!) and take the tests early junior year, and then again only if he is motivated to improve. Heās on the right side of the Texas auto-admit and feels thatās good enough. No amount of bribing/pleading/yelling will convince him to try harder for merit/honors.
Ok. Iām just going to throw this out there regarding the ACT and superscoring. A friend of mine told me sheās planning on having her son study for two of the four parts, take the test and really focus on those. And then study for the other two, and take it a second time with special focus on those two parts. Do people do that??
@homerdog I would not advise that strategy. Practice one test beforehand. See what kid needs work on. It could only be 1 section best case, or worse case all sections need improvement. Focus on improving the worst section. Take the test, See what happens. Start over. My son was fortunate that he really needed to only improve 1 section. But it took him 3 tests to get a decent result on that section.
Some kids are different and donāt improve at all. Others just ace the thing 1st try and just move on. Some kids just take it once and accept whatever outcome they get.
@RightCoaster yeah. I agree. This parent who is planning this is the mom of a VERY good test taker and student. I think she thinks he can score a perfect 36 with her strategy. Only time will tell. And Iām very sure she will tell me if that happens.
:))
@homerdog In my limited experience most schools that D16 applied to superscored the SAT. Only one didnāt. However, only one school that she applied to superscored the ACT. You have to check the policies of your target schools if you will use that strategy.
@Gatormama Be careful about the end of summer/early fall of senior year for the first time taking the tests. We tried this experiment with S17. It was a brilliant plan. He would spend the entire summer studying and preparing for the September 2016 ACT. NOPE. Not even close. I was dead wrong and it was an epic battle. Every study session, every tutoring session was a nightmare. In the end, he didnāt put in the effort that he needed to and he did not do as well as I would have liked. We had to re-evaluate our whole application strategy and list.
Now, all kids are different. Your DC might be totally motivated. But you need to test the waters now. Donāt wait like we did to put your feelers out there.
Good luck!
@me29034 OMG just to be clear. I am NOT planning on using my friendās strategy. Just wondering if anyone has heard of kids doing that.
And, isnāt there a difference between sending all scores and superscoring? Some schools will allow you to choose the tests you want to send (and then you would send the ones that have the highest score for each section) and some insist on seeing every test and then they do their own superscoring by supposedly only counting the highest scores.
I havenāt heard of people starting out with that strategy, @homerdog. My D15 had a classmate who was trying to get a high superscore on the SAT (back when it was on a 2400 scale). So on his last retake he just focused on the one section he was trying to bring up and rushed through the rest. But then he had a big discrepancy compared to his prior scores (including the other two sections dropping considerably), and that caused his test results to be flagged and questioned by the College Board. In his case, it wasnāt resolved in time for him to use the results of the last test. Itās one thing to focus on two sections but itās another thing to treat the other two sections as unimportant and throw random answers on the score sheet. Thatās asking for trouble. To me it makes more sense to do some diagnostic practice tests and figure out where the studentās actual areas of weakness are, and focus on those.
@Corinthian Wow. thatās a good story!
@homerdog Most schools only superscore the SAT , not the ACT. And schools want all scores so they superscore . Thatās the purpose of sending all scores.
@carolinamom2boys Ok. Confused now. I thought you could do something called āscore choiceā through the College Board for schools that do not need to see all scores. You pick the scores you send. I thought, with the SAT, you canāt split the scores up though. So, if you score higher on Reading in one sitting and Math on a second sitting, you have to send the total scores for both of those sittings and then the schools only look at the highest sections. If you took it five times, you could just pick the two scores that had your highest Reading and Math scores in them.
Does anyone know if thatās the case?
Answered my own question. Looked on College Board website. Not sure if we are allowed to post links on these threads? If anyone knows that is ok, Iāll post the link.
In the meantime, on their website, thereās an exhaustive list of colleges and it tells you what they need in terms of SAT scores. Some just take highest of each section and thatās all you need to send even if they are separate dates. Some want to see the highest sections but you have to send the entire score for each of those ābestā dates. Some want scores from all sittings.